Two friends have their car break down on the side of the road. Writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are driving up to the latter’s family cabin, quaintly located within the surrounding forests of Ahrenshoop, a German resort town on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The two make their way to the house, only to find they are unexpectedly sharing the house with another resident, Nadja (Paula Beer). She has already been cooking, has taken one of the rooms for herself, and even keeps the men up through the night with loud sex. Leon, in the midst of working through the manuscript for his sophomore novel, is devoted to getting his work done but immediately feels blindsided; the audience is similarly left to parse the awkward nature of the arrangement. The film’s soundscape is almost entirely made of incessant buzzing from outdoor insects, aiding the general frustration and alienation.
However, as the film goes on, we learn more about our characters. Turns out Nadja is very kind, easygoing, and genuine; she quickly apologizes for the sex noises and offers to cook dinner. We meet her lover, Devid (Enno Trebs), a similarly fun-loving and also humble lifeguard with worldly experience and sexual fluidity. Felix, ruminating over an angle for his portfolio, is taken by Nadja and Devid; he begins to spend time with them, live life by the moment, and embrace their friendship. Meanwhile, Leon proves to be a curmudgeon. He barely is able to focus on his manuscript, yet won’t enjoy the beach out of fear he is not working. He mocks Devid’s carefree attitude, yet secretly pines for Nadja, his lover. He begins harboring resentment over his housemates’ carefree attitude, but only because he refuses to admit that his work – subpar at best – is holding him back from happiness.
Afire begins as a quiet microdrama and cleverly unravels itself as a farcical character study on the selfish insecurities of one artist’s own dissatisfaction. Schubert, in a brilliantly pointed performance that similarly unravels with great power, fully embodies a duality of quiet nervousness and cocky assuredness. In one moment, he is determined to play it cool to impress Nadja, when in the next he is unafraid to codedly critique her and his fellow housemates. One moment skeptically deconstructing Felix’s concept for his portfolio – a series of photos depicting people longing staring into the sea – could only come from someone so unsure of his own work that he must tear down others around him. The lengths at which Schubert commits to his own malaise is so absurd at times that it is truly hilarious, something one would not expect from a drama this generally quiet.
German director Christian Petzold has been known to flip the script; his second and most previous film with Paula Beer, Undine, took a familiar mythology and inverted it with a sentimental, modern romance. Here it feels an opposite subversion, taking a seemingly humble ensemble story and pinpointing its focus on both a singular character and an almost larger-than-life reckoning with his own ego. This specifically comes in the form of the film’s backdrop of local forest fires, something Petzold alludes to throughout the film only for it to play a major role in the story’s climax. The symbolism of fire disrupting a natural ecosystem of thorough fauna and gorgeous shores is used to its emotional heights.
The remaining ensemble cast is stellar: Uibel and Trebs each offer a unique personality to bounce off of Schubert, but it is Beer who steals the show. The celebrated German actress is effortlessly effervescent, charming from her first scene. However, she also captures a sadness that is necessary for a woman that is unfairly obsessed over by an immature, tortured artist. At one point when their friendship begins to show signs of blooming, Leon requests that Nadja, an accomplished writer herself, read his manuscript; when she is honest in her feedback, Leon is unable to accept that she can see through his own lack of confidence in the work and winds up throwing a fit. Nadja responds with an exacting, livid response, something only an actress of Beer’s conviction could perform so perfectly.
Though his ending becomes a bit obtuse, Petzold earns his tour-de-force climax, which instills the tragedy of the story with a number of twists and turns that leave our main character in the wake of his own selfishness. Petzold tackles artistic narcissism with a “hurt people hurt people” mentality that is unflinching, leaving audiences to wonder the incredible journey to how we even got to this point. For Petzold to begin from such a simple starting point and build a story this detailed and delicate proves that the German filmmaker, now many films into his oeuvre, has yet to show signs of stagnation.
Afire is now playing in select theaters courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.
Christian Petzold’s latest is a well-crafted ensemble drama that attacks the hurtfulness of artistic narcissism and insecurity.
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GVN Rating 8
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Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.