In my opinion, the best movies are the ones that make you
cry. To be fair, I cry in most movies,
both during the happy and the sad, but there a few films I watch that are so
moving that I lose myself in the emotion.
To me, the best movies are those that take me away from reality. They immerse me, they horrify me, they elate
me, and after they’re done, it takes me a moment to come back to reality. And more often than not, given all this surge
of emotion, when I find myself back in my seat in the movie theatre or blinking
at the computer screen on my lap, it’s with tears running down my cheeks.
For me at Cannes this year, there were several films. Loveless
left me empty, helpless, and yet still satisfied. The
Killing of a Sacred Deer made me feel absurd, horrified, and disoriented me
as I walked out onto the street. A
little closer to reality, it took me an hour to stop gushing after I came out
of 120 Beats per Minute. However, the film that really left me
wrecked, and that gave me such a sense of fulfillment after watching leaving
the theatre, was one that didn’t take me away from reality at all. This film was none other than Fatih Akin’s Aus dem Nicths.
Apart from any emotional bias that I have towards this film,
In the Fade is brilliant, using
convention to its advantage, despite a narrative that offers little surprise
past its second act. Told in three
chapters, In the Fade introduces us
to Katja Sekerci (Diane Kruger), her Turkish husband Nuri (Numan Acar), and
their son Rocco. It’s impossible not to
fall in love with this family immediately, which makes it all the more heart
wrenching when Nuri and Rocco are killed in a bomb explosion less than ten
minutes into the film.
This is the premise of In
the Fade. We follow Katja as she
grapples with the grief of this tragedy, first through dealing with her
surviving family – including her pregnant sister, her mother, and her in-laws –
and then through the courtroom proceedings as it is revealed that foul play is
afoot. Despite her husband’s criminal
history with drugs, Katja knows that he has no real definable enemies. That is, except for those who target him
simply for his nationality.
For many, In the Fade
could be interpreted as a story of grief and tragedy, of lost motherhood and
the will to go on, and even one as revenge.
All of these categorizations are correct. However, director Akin refuses to allow the
true motivation, and the true villains of the movie, to go unnoticed. And if the audience wasn’t aware of it by the
end of the film, the closing title card makes it impossible to miss: the true
message of In the Fade is a protest
against Neo-Nazism and the corruption of the judicial system in regards to
political ideologies.
This is where In the
Fade finds it’s brilliance. It is
one of the few films that refuses to back down from its controversial subject
and find a definitive stance, even among nuance. Akin is careful to fully expand on the
moralities of all his characters: the victim, Nuri, is a former convict on drug
dealing and possession charges. Katja is
a hard drug user herself, especially in her grief, and further attempts suicide,
both actions which proceed to demonize her in court. Her lawyer, Danilo (Denis Moschitto), is the
one who gave her the drugs to cope. All
of these characters have developed moralities that swing between what is deemed
socially acceptable and what can, and has, landed them in prison. In the
Fade refuses to hide any of it.
The one thing that In
the Fade refuses to excuse, and refuses to find any sympathy for, is
Nazism. Akin is savage in his attack,
naming the ideology as the senseless prejudice that it is, and the force with
which his writing pushes it is what brings it to triumph. This isn’t to say that there isn’t any
sympathy for the two human villains; they are seen as happy together, and they
have built a life. All they want after
their crimes is to live peacefully.
Akin then proceeds to ask, though: Do they deserve it? And the answer is a resounding “no”.
For many, In the Fade
can be seen as formulaic. Going into its
second act, it becomes embroiled in procedural drama, and even further, the ending
becomes predictable. However, it is an
ending that is fully desired and completely satisfying, and the plot itself
represents reality.
In the Fade
doesn’t have to try to be relevant, which only makes the narrative itself more
heartbreaking. It succeeds in forging a
reality that, for many, hits so close to home that it produces emotions far
beyond a blinding rage and a deepening sorrow.
It doesn’t try to explain the unexplainable – for example, how such
hatred can exist – and instead tries to show us the inevitable that comes from
such violence.
Diane Kreuger delivers a performance that leaves a striking
impression, bringing us into the reality of her grief far more than any typical
character study. Despite the plot’s
predictability, the conventions of the courtroom genre and the revenge flick
are the only directions in which the narrative can go. Yes, there is violence, and yes, there is
loss of hope, but it is necessary to represent this story to the best of its
ability, and ultimately works towards its advantage. We become immersed in Katja’s grief and her
confusion at the world that she finds herself in, and ultimately we are given
what all fiction strives to create: truth.
Going into In the Fade
expecting something revolutionary in narrative storytelling is a fruitless
effort. It’s irrelevant to the work as a
whole. What you can expect instead is a
story that we might have heard a thousand times – both on the news, and in our
history books – and yet it makes sure that you can’t mistake it once
again. There is no hiding from the state
of reality when watching Akin’s work.
There is no way to avoid talking about the rising alt-right movements
across the glove. There is no other
topic. Grief, revenge, rage, fear; all of these emotions are just as real as
the fiction that is being told, and for so many is a reality off of the screen.
To focus only on these aspects, and to reduce In the Fade to a simple character study
goes against the final message of the film itself. Like all of the best films, it is necessary
to synthesize these emotions, and to allow yourself to be immersed. You must accept reality as it is presented,
and only then will you be able to appreciate the brilliance that Akin has
provided for us. And the most striking
thing? For so many of us who watch In the Fade, the reality we find doesn’t
change when we exit the theatre.
In the Fade
Director Fatih
Akin
Writers Fatih
Akin, Hark Bohm
Stars Diane
Kruger, Denis Moschitto
Producers Fatih Akin
Producers Fatih Akin
Running Time 1h
46
Genre Drama
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