In the Fade (Faith Akin, 2017): Germany | France

Reviewed by Samantha Mendez, Viewed by Samantha Mendez

In Faith Akins “In the Fade”  we are taken into life of Katja Sekerci ( Actress Diane Kruger ) whose life coming crashing down when her husband Nuri Sekerci and son Rocco are unfortunately murdered; a bomb is set off in front of her husbands office, a plot from neo nazis. As the movie goes on we look at life through her eyes and her struggles of not only coping with the loss of her loves ones but, seeking retribution for to those who have done so.

Faith not only did an amazing job selecting Diane Kruger to take on this role but by the atmosphere he was able to create throughout the whole film. Let’s take a look environment for example, in one scene the weather is very gloomy and cloudy, often clouds are connected to sadness. Then it begins to rain when we find out her husband and son are murdered; often in movies when a drastic event happens such as death happens it rains which symbolizes sadness; like I said before.

Now we take a look Diane Kruger’s acting, she was really able to capture the essence and emotion of the feeling losing an family member. Kruger explained how on her free time, before shooting the production, she would go to groups that were about people who had family murdered ( some who were even mothers). I would say that takes real dedication as an actress to do so, just being in the room with all those grieving would be hard and unbearable to witness.

He also did an amazing job with the camera shots throughout the film. The scene that I personally favored the most was the scene of her lying in bed staring outside as it’s raining. The shot is her facing and the shadows of the rain streaming down cast on her face and due to it being night her face gets light traces of blue; often symbolizing depression. It’s that not only is she internally broken but so is the world surrounding her. Also how the camera frames weren’t kept still at certain times and were fidgeting often actually added more to atmosphere of the movie, whether it was intentional or not, one could real feel like they were there in that present moment

I also liked how chose the right times to play suspenseful music. In some particular scenes I was anticipating music to be played but it wasn’t; and that actually added more to the scenes. Sometimes it’s better when we can’t expect the unexpected. Personally I think that the overuse of music to cause foreshadowing of a movie can actually taint the scene, were suppose to have an idea of what can happen as of knowing what will happen.

I would say I loved the film because all the dynamics that were used to make the film as a whole was executed perfectly. The acting, the scenery, and the music really captured it all; at no points did the film ever become boring if anything it just raised more questions that makes one want to keep watching so those questions could be answered. I would say this film would be for not only adults but young adults as well. It really taps into issues we face today, like terrorism, and just how it can really happen to anyone no matter what their past may be.