Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Afire

Our film on Sunday traced a few days in a remote house where a young author, Leon was failing miserably to edit his pretty awful second novel when he is disturbed by the other young folks there, including a young woman, Nadja, who first annoys him but with whom he gradually falls in love. At the same time, there are forest fires around the area which are coming nearer and nearer...

This was not a film where the plot was important; it was all about what the various characters were thinking, and their resulting actions. The director, Christian Petzold, is famous for linking world events to his characters’ actions – the Nazis capture of his hero in 'Phoenix' for instance – but here he follows more in the mode of Eric Rohmer; nothing of any real significance happens, just conversations, often about relationships. He couldn’t quite resist going back on this at the end when the forest fires – AKA global warming – have a huge impact on Leon. Because of this, he abandons his manuscript all together and writes another based on these events, his relationship growing as the fire grows nearer.

The film certainly gave us lots to think about; was Leon an obnoxious person as I stated in the intro before the film? Well, no not really – he was upset over how badly his novel had turned out, how likely his publisher was to reject it, and then the others in the house – his friend Felix, Nadja and Nadja’s friend Devid: they all got on really well and he was feeling squeezed out. It then turned out that Nadja was not just an ice cream seller as he thought, she was a post grad student studying literature and was obviously cleverer than her was. So not obnoxious, just not very socially aware. By the end, Leon had finally declared his love to Nadja; whether there was a future for the two of them was left in doubt - by the ’end of the world’ forest fire - but encouraged by the final shot of Leon who has managed a smile for Nadja at last...