While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer, an encroaching forest fire threatens the group, and tensions escalate when a handsome lifeguard and Leon’s tight-lipped book editor also arrive. Christian Petzold’s acclaimed latest was the winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
“AFIRE is the uncompromising work of a master not only on conceptual and stylistic levels but also in terms of his emotional politics…. May be his most touching finale — which says a lot for a director who’s never failed an ending—in celebration of the quake of love’s representation.” —Savina Petkova, The Playlist “As immaculate as we’ve come to expect from Petzold: the neat, lacerating folds of its narrative, the sharp contrast between inky shadow and sunburned color sustained by Hans Fromm’s lensing, the single evocative soundtrack selection sure to tumble around your brain for days after…. It’s the film’s great, disorienting structural risks, its humoring of human untidiness and confusion, that make it so subtly thrilling and moving.” —Guy Lodge, Variety
