Afire, which I saw at the Lincoln Center-Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, is the English title for the German film Roter Himmel (literally « Red Sky »), the work of director Christian Petzold. It follows a seemingly social awkward, apparently unfriendly, somewhat clueless, boorishly arrogant, chain-smoking Leon, who is a young aspiring writer, currently working on the unfortunately titled « Club Sandwich. » With his much more easy-going and better looking friend Felix, an aspiring photographer, the two have retreated to a beach-house owned by Felix’s family on the Baltic Sea near Ahrenshoop. It is a beautiful place, its perfection marred only by Leon’s bad manners and the increasingly frightening forest fires nearby. The two expected to be there alone but find that Felix’s mother has, without warning him, also let the place out to Nadja, a literary criticism Ph..D. student, currently a seasonal worker selling ice cream at the beach. Spending the nights, first with her and then with Felix, is Devid, a « rescue swimmer, » i.e., lifeguard. (The peculiar spelling of Devid’s name is ascribed to an old GDR quirk.)
Petzold has suggested he has been inspired by American and French coming-of-age stories set in summer at the beach. The film follows the four over the course of a few days, toward the end of which they are visited by Leon’s publisher Helmut. The narrative unfolds simply. Felix swims, repairs the roof, and takes pictures for his portfolio. Dinners get prepared and shared. Nadja bikes to and from her work at the beach. David hangs around and helps Felix fix the roof. And Leon largely sulks, dissatisfied with the behavior of the others, above all dissatisfied with himself and his unsatisfactory literary output, a dissatisfaction he ineffectively seems to try to take out on everyone else around him. The simple narrative serves as the context for an intriguing character study, as each of the characters turns out to be more than he or she seemed at first.
Meanwhile, the forest fires approach closer, and terrible tragedy ensues, from which eventually emerge better writing and true love.
