Afire (German: Roter Himmel, lit. 'Red Sky') is a 2023 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold, starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs. The relationship drama focuses on four people sharing a holiday home on the Baltic Sea. The film won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 22 February 2023. It was released theatrically in Germany on 20 April 2023. In August 2023, it was shortlisted as the German submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards.

Plot

Friends Felix and Leon are driving to Felix's family holiday home on the Baltic Sea not far from Ahrenshoop when their car breaks down. After walking through the forest with their luggage, they arrive at the house to find it unexpectedly inhabited by Nadja, whose presence is obvious though they do not meet her. Her romantic trysts keep them up at night, causing Leon to resent her. Over the course of their vacation forests fires are mentioned, first distantly, then approaching. Leon spends his time fussing over the manuscript of his second novel, while Felix is less hurried about completing his photography portfolio. Within a couple days, they have both met Nadja, who is kind and accommodating. Despite this, Leon continues to be frustrated by her. Meanwhile, Felix strikes up a friendship with her and her lover, Devid, a lifeguard at the nearby beach. The emotions among the four intensify as Leon broods and resists interacting with the others. Felix and Devid develop a romantic and sexual relationship. Nadja offers friendship to Leon but he struggles to accept it. After much consternation, he decides to grant her request to read his manuscript, which she finds inferior and she tells him that he knows its poor quality. Leon does not take this well and isolates himself for the rest of the evening. When Leon's publisher Helmut arrives so they can review the manuscript together, Leon grows even more despondent as Helmut connects more with Felix, Devid, and especially Nadja, who is revealed to be a doctoral candidate in literature, not the seasonal hotel employee Leon thought. After a dinner that is tense for Leon and enjoyable for the rest, the forest fires are close enough that ash begins to fall just as Devid and Felix finally leave to retrieve their abandoned car. Helmut suffers a medical emergency. Nadja is quick to act, driving Helmut's tiny rental car to the hospital. Leon follows on foot. On the way, he sees wild boar fleeing the fire. After watching a boar die, the fire begins to crest the hill and he runs. In darkness, he reaches the hospital to join Nadja, asleep on a bench. When they wake in the morning and find Helmut, he shares private moments with both of them. Nadja asks about his health, which he has lied about so as not to trouble them, and informs him of Leon's distress. Helmut comforts Leon, advising him to abandon his work-in-progress but assuring him of eventual success. Helmut promises to help him as long as his condition allows. On the walk back to the house, Nadja offers Leon comfort which Leon angrily rejects, leading Nadja to castigate him for his self-centeredness before leaving him alone on the beach. Remorseful, he follows her back to the house where he begins to confess romantic feelings for her, just as she sees two police officers in the backyard. Nadja approaches them and they inform her that Devid and Felix were found burned to death by the fires. Nadja and Leon go to see their bodies and see their charred corpses intertwined in death. Nadja has a profound emotional reaction, but Leon cannot absorb the reality, instead thinking about other coupled corpses throughout history, such as those found at Pompeii. She leaves without him, and by the time he reaches the vacation house she has left. He goes to the beach and sobs, looking at the bioluminescence in the sea, something he has refused to do earlier. Some time later, Leon is in Helmut's hospital room as Helmut reads Leon's new manuscript back to him, a work of autofiction based on the time he shared with Felix, Nadja, and Devid. Together they look at photos Felix took that summer which Helmut wants to use as accompanying artwork for the novel. Helmut has Leon leave when a medic appears to administer a treatment. Waiting outside, Leon sees Nadja arriving, presumably to visit Helmut. He steps out from hiding and the two share a moment of mutual recognition.

Cast

Thomas Schubert as Leon Paula Beer as Nadja Langston Uibel as Felix Enno Trebs as Devid Matthias Brandt as Helmut Esther Ash as Ms. König, hotel manager Jennipher Antoni as Mrs. Roland, cashier Jonas Dassler Marieke Zwart as firefighter

Production

In October 2020, Christian Petzold revealed his next film, a gay love story. He revealed that he wants to make a series of films loosely inspired by the classical elements of water, earth, fire and air. Starting with Undine in 2020, a tale of water nymph, fire will rise for Afire. The film was shot from 28 June 2022 to 17 August 2022 in Ahrenshoop.

Release and reception

Afire had its premiere on 22 February 2023 as part of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, in competition. It was released in cinemas on 20 April 2023. The film also made it to 'Perlak' section of the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival held from 22 to 30 September 2023. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Nicholas Bell in IonCinema.com graded the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "the real pleasure is in Petzold’s writing of his characters, and there’s an oddly satisfying authenticity to the discomforts and aggressions caused by Leon’s pretension-as-self-defense moments." Ben Croll reviewing for IndieWire graded the film B− and wrote, "Petzold tries to take the air out of a pompous windbag, and more often than not succeeds to delightful and caustic effect." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film with 2 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The tonal change is not really convincing, and I wished that the film's potential for lighter comedy had been developed more. Even so, it’s a strong performance from Schubert.

= Accolades

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References

External links

Afire at IMDb Afire at Berlinale Afire at Film portal Afire at Crew United Afire at Rotten Tomatoes