Summer’s Most Tumultuous Vacation Lights Up ‘Afire’

Few cinematic oeuvres are more beguiling and affecting than that of Christian Petzold, the acclaimed German director whose collaborations with Nina Hoss (Jerichow, Barbara, Phoenix) and Paula Beer (Transit, Undine) stand as some of the past decades’ finest. As befitting an auteur whose films are habitually grounded in issues of personal and political transition and stasis, Petzold never covers the same narrative terrain twice and yet always returns to his foundational preoccupations.

Thus, it’s not surprising that Afire—which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival and premieres in U.S. theaters on July 14—is another masterwork about characters who are trapped by internal and external circumstances from which they find it intensely difficult to escape.

“Something’s not right,” says Felix (Langston Uibel) to his friend Leon (Thomas Schubert) as they drive along a remote forested road on their way to a secluded Baltic Sea holiday home owned by Felix’s family. Felix is referring to their car, whose strange noises portend imminent trouble, but the fact that Leon doesn’t immediately hear the comment is an early indication about his detachment from his mate, the world, and the impending dangers around him.

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