The annals of film have long shown the fallibility of the ‘writer’s retreat’. Continuing that long held pessimism is Christian Petzold’s Silver Bear winning Afire, an uneven but delightfully acrid drama where relationships are poisoned by narcissism and sexual binary gives way to freedom of expression amidst the scarcity of creative spark.
The film follows Leon (Thomas Schubert) a young, narcissistic writer struggling with writer’s block, whose creative flame wanes as the literal fires around him rage on, and who heads to a family cabin with his best friend Felix (Langston Uibel) on the Baltic coast. A summer of peace and freedom should inspire Leon to finish the manuscript to his next book, a relationship comedy called Club Sandwich.
The novelty of quiet is usurped immediately by a broken down car, threatened by the lone and sexually liberated Nadja (Paula Beer) and the naked man, Devid (Enno Trebs), that exits in the night. Taking an instant dislike to Nadja, the narcissistic and irritating Leon tries to continue his new novel, one which he suspects will be the sophomore slump to the previous acclaimed work that caused his ego to swell. But his writer’s block metastasises into a bitter inability to socialise amongst the free spirits that churn around him, free of the gravitational pull he both desires and detests.
This review was originally posted on July 13th 2023. Full review linked below.
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