Reviews
In The Fade
Reviewed by Vaughan Ames
If you can even try to imagine what it inever mind the wife of a man killed by the same bomb, then you are on the way to putting yourself into the mind of Katja, the main character of our and, by the reaction of the 121 strong audience, he succeeded; not only that but he produced one of the most tense films I have seen for some time. He was very ably assisted by Diane Kruger, who played Katja and was on camera for virtually every scene; her performance won her the Best Actress award at Cannes Film Festival.
The scene was set of a very loving family, albeit recovering from both drug selling and drug usage, now doing pretty well, until that bomb goes off – the director had the sense NOT to show this, just Katja arriving to pick up her family after the event. From then on the whole film is about her, and her reactions to events. She has to fight the police to stop them blaming it all on drug gang violence, realising before them that it is nazi-inspired: just because Nuri (her husband) is Turkish. She tries to commit suicide at one point, but is stopped just in time when she hears that the police have caught the murderers – a nazi couple, the Möllers. Then she has to sit through the court hearings, watching the Möllers and their lawyer putting up a ridiculous defence when even André Möllers' father testifies that he is guilty. Then the ultimate kick in the teeth; they are acquitted due to technical doubts. (This brought a healthy debate after the film; would this have happened in reality, in the UK?)
In the last part of the film, we follow Katja as she looks for the Möllers in hiding in Greece; will she, or won't she try to kill them? Will she go back to court and appeal? Will she just kill herself? Well the film is now available on DVD and I recommend watching it if you can; the tension lasts to the last scene...
The scene was set of a very loving family, albeit recovering from both drug selling and drug usage, now doing pretty well, until that bomb goes off – the director had the sense NOT to show this, just Katja arriving to pick up her family after the event. From then on the whole film is about her, and her reactions to events. She has to fight the police to stop them blaming it all on drug gang violence, realising before them that it is nazi-inspired: just because Nuri (her husband) is Turkish. She tries to commit suicide at one point, but is stopped just in time when she hears that the police have caught the murderers – a nazi couple, the Möllers. Then she has to sit through the court hearings, watching the Möllers and their lawyer putting up a ridiculous defence when even André Möllers' father testifies that he is guilty. Then the ultimate kick in the teeth; they are acquitted due to technical doubts. (This brought a healthy debate after the film; would this have happened in reality, in the UK?)
In the last part of the film, we follow Katja as she looks for the Möllers in hiding in Greece; will she, or won't she try to kill them? Will she go back to court and appeal? Will she just kill herself? Well the film is now available on DVD and I recommend watching it if you can; the tension lasts to the last scene...