Afire
Director: Christian Petzold
19 June 2023
See
Him: Leon and Felix travel to a holiday house on the Baltic sea in northern Germany. Leon needs to finish his manuscript, and Felix intends to make a portfolio for art school. The house is already occupied by Nadja, a mysterious and enigmatic presence who has loud sex with Dewid, a local lifeguard, there’s a looming threat of wildfires in the surrounding forest.
Her: Two friends, Leon and Felix are traveling to Felix’s country house to work on their projects in a peaceful environment on the Baltic Sea where they unexpectedly meet Nadja who’s coincidentally staying in the same cottage. The situation quickly fires up from within as well as outside because of the bushfires making it impossible for any of them to leave.
Think
Him: Leon is an intellectual. And neurotic, overthinking everything, he’s unable to write, but unable to do anything else. When Felix invites him to the beach, Leon doesn’t swim, but sits full clothed in black and wearing sneakers. Making us uncomfortable. But not as much as when he belittle Dewid about his career after the carefree lifeguard joins the three residents for dinner and shares a hilariously detailed story ‘I’ll spray you gay’. The bait and switch of loud sex is repeated but this time Leon is sharing a room with Nadja. He’s still indecisive, but shares his manuscript with her before his publisher comes to read it. She’s scathing about ‘Club Sandwich’.
Her: I came to the screening with zero expectations, even after reading the synopsis. To me this is a film about empathy, about being open and considerate and not judgemental. It was an interesting decision on the directors part to make the main character - Leon, an antagonist in the story. The ending is almost over saturated with tragic events that quickly ground down Leon with his annoyances and dissatisfactions - he learns a lot but cannot go back in time and change anything.
Feel
Him: I relate to Leon a lot. He needs to shut up and write! The third act of the publisher arriving and fire surrounding the hamlet are the strongest. I was glad to see Felix’s photo series of people staring at the sea. But also Leon’s writing improved once he admitted to Nadja how he feels about her. His watching the three of them play night neon badminton to the repeated song in my mind by Wallners was magical.
Her: I felt overwhelmed after watching the film and for some reason knew that I’m going to rewatch it again. The story is not groundbreaking but very relatable and well told through simple but beautiful visuals, good acting and memorable soundtrack. It will stay with me for a while.
