18, 106 mins
A mother’s courage is warped by grief and righteous indignation in writer-director Fatih Akin’s award-winning drama.
In The Fade is a slow-burning German-language thriller of shifting moral certainties, distinguished by a tour-de-force central performance from Diane Kruger.
Her fearless portrayal of an avenging angel scorches every frame of Akin’s picture as she careens at high speed towards a precipice of self-destruction.
Kruger (above) rips out her anguished mother’s heart, ricocheting between guilt, rage and incomprehension, numbing the pain with drugs scored from her lawyer before emerging from a suicidal fug to pursue her violent vendetta.
Courtroom scenes shimmer with suspense. There are tense exchanges between legal counsels, but once the verdict is delivered, tension dissipates and Akin relies increasingly on Kruger to energise a final act that tests both our patience and sympathy.
Kurdish drug dealer Nuri Sekerci (Numan Akar) marries sweetheart Katja (Kruger) while he is behind bars.
Upon his release, the jailbird agrees to atone for his sins so they can raise a family.
Nuri studies business so he can open an office in Hamburg while Katja dotes on their cherubic five-yearold son, Rocco (Rafael Santana). Late one evening, Katja returns to her husband’s office to collect their boy and she is greeted by police cordons and flashing blue lights.
A nail bomb has been detonated in the street and police sombrely confirm that Nuri and Rocco were killed in the blast. Authorities initially focus on Nuri’s past, speculating he might have been trafficking drugs again and targeted by embittered rivals.
Katja collapses under the weight of her grief, seeking consolation in the arms of good friend Birgit (Samia Chancrin), while her incandescent in-laws add fuel to the fire.
Kruger doesn’t disappoint, holding firm to her character’s volatile convictions.
A muddled resolution, which shifts the action to Greece and proposes to quench Katja’s thirst for revenge, begs more nagging, uncomfortable questions than it answers.
DS