THE BOX 10 OFFICE TOP
(18)
A MOTHER’S courage is warped by grief and righteous indignation in writer-director Fatih Akin’s award-winning drama.
Bookmarked into three emotionally wrought chapters entitled Family, Justice and The Sea, In The Fade is a slow-burning German-language thriller of shifting moral certainties, which is distinguished by a tour-deforce central performance from Diane Kruger.
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.
True to his word, 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.
Authorities initially focus on Nuri’s inglorious past and speculate that 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 further fuel to the fire.
Eventually, police arrest two members of a far-reaching neo-Nazi network, Andre (Ulrich Brandhoff) and Edda Moller (Hanna Hilsdorf), and Katja prepares to testify in court while her lawyer Danilo Fava (Denis Moschitto) locks horns with the defendants’ legal representative.
Kruger’s fearless portrayal of an avenging angel, who vows to dole out the justice denied to her loved ones by the courts, scorches every frame of Akin’s picture as she careens towards selfdestruction. Kruger rips out her anguished mother’s heart as she ricochets between guilt, rage and incomprehension, numbing the pain with drugs scored from her lawyer before she emerges from a suicidal fug to pursue her violent vendetta.
Courtroom scenes shimmer with suspense and there are some deliciously tense exchanges between legal counsels but once the verdict is delivered, tension dissipates and Akin relies increasingly on his luminous leading lady to energise a pedestrian final act that tests both our patience and sympathy.
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.
Showing in selected cinemas, and available to stream exclusively on curzonhomecinema.com
MARVEL’S LUKE CAGE – SEASON 2
MIKE Colter, pictured left, reprises his role as the crusading Marvel Comics character in another 13 episodes of the Netflix fantasy drama created by Cheo Hodari Coker. This series, Luke Cage no longer has to live in the shadows of Harlem after he vanquished hoodlum Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali) and menacing arms dealer Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey), allowing him to fan the flames of romance with nurse Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson).
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4. Solo: A Star Wars Story
5. Deadpool 2
6. Avengers: Infinity War
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10. Super Troopers 2
CHART COURTESY OF CINEWORLD