Afire

(2023)

★ 6.8 IMDb · 268 votes

Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy

Year: 2023

Runtime: 103 мин

Country: Germany

Director: Кристиан Петцольд

Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Лэнгстон Уйбель, Enno Trebs, Matthias Brandt, Jennipher Antoni, Ralph Barnebeck, Esther Esche, Mario Fürstenberg, Assunta Hamm

Plot

Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. Meanwhile, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms.

A summer on the Baltic Sea. It is hot and dry, and it hasn't rained for weeks. Four young people meet in a remote vacation home between the forest and the sea: Leon and Felix, friends since childhood, Nadja, who works as a seasonal worker in the coastal village, and Devid, the lifeguard. While Leon, following the success of his debut novel, increasingly isolates himself due to the pressure now weighing on his second work, Nadja, Felix, and Devid spend happy moments together. They go swimming, cook together, and Felix, inspired by Devid, photographs beach-goers for his art school application portfolio. These are suspended days, as if fallen out of this world. But a barely perceptible sense of danger lies beneath the carefree nature of this summer. And just as a spark is enough to set the dry forests around them on fire, so too does it happen to the young people with their feelings and hopes, with love. There is happiness and longing, but also jealousy, sensitivities, tensions. Then the flames spread. In one night, the fire eats its way through the forest near the vacation home. One night after which nothing will ever be the same again. It could be a beginning.