Winner of the 2018 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and directed by acclaimed Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin, In the Fade is a terrific dramatic thriller remarkable for the superb acting performance from German actress Diane Kruger. The tragic story follows a German woman named Katja Sekerci, played by Kruger who is best known for her performance in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds, whose Kurdish husband Nuri and son Rocco are killed by a bomb placed outside her husband’s office in a predominantly Turkish neighborhood of Hamburg, Germany. Clearly ravaged by grief and anger, she all but gives up on her own life immediately following her family’s deaths and turns to using illicit drugs after the police insinuate that her convicted felon husband may have been murdered as part of his prior connection to the drug underworld. She also feels alienated from her parents and her in-laws who never really approved of their marriage as a result of their very different backgrounds. When the two young suspects with connections to the neo-Nazi movement are apprehended and put on trial, Katja who is represented by her lawyer friend Danilo becomes very involved with the trial in order to seek justice for her husband and son. She is promised several times by prosecutors and her lawyer and becomes convinced herself that the trial will end with easy murder convictions and possible life imprisonment for the racist couple. Towards the end of the movie, Katja heartbreakingly realizes that she may have to take her own revenge at a high cost outside the judicial system. Overall, the film through mesmerizing acting did an excellent job of portraying grief and loss and the emotional tumult and sheer anger experienced by those whose loved ones die through violent means. Diane Kruger’s emotionally raw and heartfelt performance really brings to life what it must be like to undergo incomprehensible heartbreak caused by the hands of those filled with hatred.
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