Afire

Afire (Roter Himmel) is a 2023 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold, starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs. The relationship drama focuses on four people who are trapped in their holiday home on the Baltic Sea by uncontrolled forest fires.

The film won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 22 February 2023. It was released theatrically in Germany on 20 April 2023. In August 2023, it was shortlisted as the German submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards.

Plot
Friends Felix and Leon experience severe car trouble on the way to Felix's family holiday home on the Baltic Sea not far from Ahrenshoop. After walking through the forest with their luggage, they arrive at the home to find it unexpectedly inhabited by Nadja, a relaxed and friendly woman working at an ice cream cart by the sea. Her romantic trysts keep Leon and Felix up at night, causing Leon to resent her presence.

Leon spends his time fussing over finishing his manuscript while Felix is less hurried about completing his photography portfolio. Within a couple days, they have both met Nadja, who is kind and accommodating. Despite this, Leon continues to be frustrated by her. Meanwhile, Felix strikes up a friendship with her and her lover, Devid, who is a lifeguard at the beach.

As reports and warnings of forest fires to the west intensify, so do the emotional conditions at the holiday home. Leon broods and resists interacting with the other three; Felix and Devid couple up with genuine romantic feeling for the other; Nadja offers friendship to Leon but he struggles to accept it. After much consternation, he decides to grant her request of reading his manuscript, which she finds inferior and suggests that he knows this to be the case. Leon does not take this well and isolates himself for the rest of the evening.

When Helmut, Leon's publisher arrives, Leon grows even more despondent as Helmut connects more with Felix, Devid, and especially Nadja, who is revealed to be a PhD candidate in Literature. After a dinner that is tense for Leon and enjoyable for the rest, the fires are close enough that ash begins to fall just as Devid and Felix finally leave to retrieve the broken down car and Helmut suffers a medical emergency. Nadja is quick to act, leaving Leon to follow them to the hospital on foot. On the way, he sees wild boar fleeing the fire. After watching a boar die, the fire begins to crest the hill and he runs. In darkness, he reaches the hospital to join Nadja, asleep on a bench.

When they wake in the morning and find Helmut, he shares private moments with both Nadja and Leon. Nadja asks about his true condition (which he has lied about so as not to trouble them) and informs him of Leon's distress. Helmut comforts Leon, saying that his book-in-progress (titled Club Sandwich) is decidedly not good, he should put it aside, and that he will someday write a fine piece of literature. Helmut promises to help him as long as his condition allows.

On the walk back to the house, Nadja offers comfort and Leon angrily rejects it, leading Nadja to finally air her grievances about his selfishness and ignorance before leaving him alone on the beach. Remorseful, he follows her back to the house where he begins to confess romantic feelings for her, just as two police officers wander into the backyard. Nadja approaches them and they inform her that Devid and Felix were found, burned to death by the fires.

Nadja and Leon go to see the bodies despite being warned against it. The charred corpses of the lovers are intertwined in death. Nadja has a profound emotional reaction, but Leon cannot find it in himself to absorb the moment, instead thinking about other coupled corpses throughout history, such as in Pompeii. She once again leaves without him, and she has left the home by the time he returns. He goes to the beach and sobs, looking at the bioluminescence in the sea after refusing opportunities to do so before.

Some time later, Leon is in Helmut's hospital room as Helmut reads Leon's new manuscript back to him, which is clearly a work of autofiction based on the time he shared with Felix, Nadja, and Devid. As they look at photos Felix took from that summer to use as accompanying artwork, Helmut shoos Leon away to wait as he is treated. Outside, Leon notices Nadja arriving, presumably to visit Helmut. He steps out from hiding and the two share a pleasant moment of mutual recognition.

Cast

 * Thomas Schubert as Leon
 * Paula Beer as Nadja
 * Langston Uibel as Felix
 * Enno Trebs as Devid
 * Matthias Brandt as Helmut
 * Esther Ash as Ms. König, hotel manager
 * Jennipher Antoni as Mrs. Roland, cashier
 * Jonas Dassler
 * Marieke Zwart as firefighter

Production
In October 2020, Christian Petzold revealed his next film, a gay love story. He revealed that he wants to make a series of films loosely inspired by the classical elements of water, earth, fire and air. Starting with Undine in 2020, a tale of water nymph, fire will rise for Afire. The film was shot from 28 June 2022 to 17 August 2022 in Ahrenshoop.

Release and reception
Afire had its premiere on 22 February 2023 as part of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, in competition. It was released in cinemas on 20 April 2023. The film also made it to 'Perlak' section of the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival held from 22 to 30 September 2023.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Nicholas Bell in IonCinema.com graded the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "the real pleasure is in Petzold’s writing of his characters, and there’s an oddly satisfying authenticity to the discomforts and aggressions caused by Leon’s pretension-as-self-defense moments." Ben Croll reviewing for IndieWire graded the film B− and wrote, "Petzold tries to take the air out of a pompous windbag, and more often than not succeeds to delightful and caustic effect." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film with 2 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The tonal change is not really convincing, and I wished that the film's potential for lighter comedy had been developed more. Even so, it’s a strong performance from Schubert.