Before Katja goes to a hamam with her best friend, she brings her curly-haired 8 year old Rocco to his dad Nuri‘s translation office. When she returns, the little multicultural shopping street in the center of Hamburg is filled with police cars. A bomb exploded in front of the store. Rocco and Nuri are dead. What follows is stunned horror, despair, unhelpful, tactless relatives and police investigations that suspect someone from Nuri‘s circle. There was that previous conviction, was her husband still a drug dealer? In the end, the traces lead to neo-Nazis and Katja has a new goal that keeps her alive: the perpetrators need to be punished.

IN THE FADE is about a fictional murder that follows the pattern of the NSU killings. The events are split into three chapters: Family, Justice, and The Sea, and describe the film‘s transition from a family drama into a legal film and finally to a revenge thriller. IN THE FADE is told in a controlled manner and has a linear plot, very sad, and: incredibly angry. This anger is directed at the evil murderers, but also the authorities that suspected the grieving loved ones. The anger drives Katja, played by Diane Kruger in a breath-taking tour-de-france performance which won her the Palme for Best Actress in Cannes. The anger comes into action in the dramatic ending, which can‘t be revealed of course. IN THE FADE is thrilling and necessary and a Hamburg film about very normal urban people that were torn apart from their normal life. People who quit university, take drugs against the pain, get by somehow, have issues with their parents-in-law, and give each other support.

Hendrike Bake (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy