![]() The writer-director is a wily observer of the evolving dynamics in the group, and the wonderful Beer - reteaming with Petzold after Transit and Undine - is amusingly direct in ways that jibe with easygoing Felix and Devid but seem to rankle Leon, even as he’s attracted to her. The guest’s conversation with Nadja and Felix compounds Leon’s sullenness until he starts aggressively questioning Devid, making Felix lose his temper and tell him to knock it off. He recognizes the lifeguard as Nadja’s bedroom playmate and is even more irritated when Felix saunters off to say hello, inviting the guy, Devid (Enno Trebs), to dinner. When Leon finally does go to the beach, he remains fully clothed and petulant the whole time, dressed entirely in black. By contrast, he’s dismissive of Felix’s idea for a photography portfolio he’s preparing for his art school application. (Nadja later teases him about his pompous manner of foregoing recreation: “My work won’t allow it.”) Instead, he just procrastinates. He makes a big show of how important his work is, declining to take time away from his laptop and go swimming with Felix. Tension at first seems rooted in Leon’s internal unease. At times, this recalls Alain Guiraudie’s erotic thriller Stranger by the Lake, although the dread in Afire doesn’t play out in the way you might expect. But as reports of the fires become more worrying and the sound of water-bombing aircraft flying low over the area grows more frequent, a subtle hint of foreboding creeps in. Unable to sleep, Leon harumphs off outside to the gazebo and spritzes himself with bug spray, observing Nadja’s hunky lover slip away naked into the woods the next morning.Īll this feels unusually light and lean for a Petzold movie, without his customary textural elements of political, economical, historical or social context - almost as if he’s detouring into Eric Rohmer territory, with a touch of Mia Hansen-Løve. The two men don’t physically meet their surprise housemate, Nadja (Paula Beer), until two days later, but they hear her both nights, having noisy, vigorous sex in the next bedroom. Felix takes it in stride, happily finishing off the lasagna left out by that other guest from the previous night’s dinner, but Leon gets even grumpier. ![]() The writer’s annoyance continues when they eventually get to the house and find they’ll be sharing it with a woman Felix’s mother forgot to mention. The more uptight Leon is clearly put out, carrying just a single duffel bag and complaining all the way. Felix is cheerfully mellow and adaptable, shrugging off the inconvenience as he loads most of their luggage on his back to head through the woods on foot. Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Competition)Ĭast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, Matthias BrandtĪn acutely incisive character portraitist, Petzold wastes no time showing us how dissimilar these two friends are.
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