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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 6 January 2018
Review: In ‘In the Fade,’ a seldom seen face of terrorism

By JAKE COYLE His latest, “In the Fade,” is a revenge thriller, “In the The police, while sympa- shores, too, including here
AP Film Writer Germany’s Oscar submis- Fade” is a shape-shifting thetic, are immediately in the United States, where
It’s startling how few film- sion and one of the nine quest through a terrorist suspicious of Nuri’s back- neo-Nazism is also present,
makers have tried to tack- films shortlisted for best tragedy, as outraged as it ground. Was he religious? and where the ethnicity of
le terrorism with anything foreign language film. It is compassionate. Was he “politically ac- a perpetrator sometimes
beyond a standard pro- deservedly earned its star, Kruger, a native German tive?” Was he dealing seems to determine which
cedural account. It’s less Diane Kruger, the best ac- acting in her first German drugs again? mass killings get labeled
surprising that one of the tress award at last year’s film, plays Katja Sekerci. But Katja remembers a terrorism. In “In the Fade,”
few to really grapple with Cannes Film Festival. And She lives in Hamburg with fleeting encounter when the face of terrorism is
a response is Fatih Akin, the like the best of Akin’s films her husband Nuri (Nu- she left her husband’s of- blonde and blue-eyed.
German-born filmmaker (“Head-On,” ‘’The Edge of man Acar), who’s Turkish, fice where a woman left an Told in three distinct chap-
of Turkish descent, whose Heaven”), it’s a muscularly and their five-year-old son unchained bicycle outside ters, the film is alternatively
thorny, probing dramas lean and emotionally raw Rocco (Rafael Santana). the office. She was, as Kat- wrenching, gripping and a
traverse borders as a mat- film. At turns a tragedy, In the movie’s opening ja says, white and blonde, little perplexing. The middle
ter of course. a courtroom drama and preamble, Nuri, clad in a “as German as me.” Only chapter, the courtroom

This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Diane Kruger in a scene from “In the Fade.”
Associated Press

white suit, is walked from once investigators have drama, is expertly done,
his prison cell directly into looked into dormant crimi- and aided by fine attorney
his wedding with Katja. It’s nal connections and non- performances by Denis
the kind of incongruity Akin existent Turkish mafia ties Moschitto and Johannes
delights in. (His “Head-On” do they realize Katja was Krisch. But the second act’s
fashioned a love story be- correct. The bombing was clear lines of good and
tween a man and woman the work of neo-Nazis, a evil are blurred in the final
brought together by mu- pair of whom were simply chapter, which moves to
tual suicide attempts.) The targeting a Turkish area of sunny Greece where Akin’s
first notes of “My Girl” radi- town. film fights a growing sense
ate while Nuri strides down Akin was inspired to make of despair with the glimmer
a corridor of cheering male “In the Fade” (the title of a greater empathy.
inmates. of which comes from a To say that the many parts
It’s also just the first inver- Queens of the Stone Age of “In the Fade” are held
sion of “In the Fade.” The song; the band’s Josh together by Kruger would
film flashes forward to their Homme composed the be an understatement. As
happy family life five years score) after a rash of Neo- a cocktail of grief, fury and
later. When Katja returns Nazi terrorist attacks in Ger- regret, she’s a remarkably
to Nuri’s office one eve- many, where a flood of ref- original protagonist — a
ning, she encounters a ugees from Syria has also chain-smoking, tattooed
road blocked by police. raised anti-immigration mother who, in her trauma,
Her initial horror is soon tensions. But “In the Fade” is always a breath away
confirmed: both Nuri and resonates on many other from drowning.q
Rocco have been killed by
a nail bomb exploded just
outside his tax office, their
bodies obliterated. Katja
descends into a nightmare
of grief and disorienta-
tion. She leads investiga-
tors through the rain to her
home to give them her
husband and son’s tooth-
brushes to identify their
DNA.