A smouldering comedy of manners about friendship, love and jealousy.
German auteur Christian Petzold returns with a triumphant, sly tragicomedy on the politics of friendship, sex and jealousy. Odd couple twenty-something friends Leon (Thomas Schubert), a pretentious, failing novelist, and Felix (Langston Uibel), an amiable wannabe photographer, escape to a cosy beach house on the Baltic coast. But the house’s owner, Leon’s mother, has failed to disclose that a young family friend, Nadja (Paula Beer), is already crashing there. Not only that, she is enjoying a fling with a beefcake local lifeguard. And so between the ocean and an idyllic woodland a complex and wry relationship quadrangle develops. Romance and resentment entangles all four while Leon grapples with his professional and emotional failings. Just as the slow-burning emotional tension tightens, the forest around them ignites into flame. Red skies loom above – will they lead to renewal or destruction?
“Afire captures complex human interactions in a style of clear-minded sobriety.” (Slant)
“Deceptive simplicity makes way for illuminating depths.” (Hollywood Reporter)