Ut av Intet

Director Fatih Akin's latest film is an intense revenge-thriller using far-right extremism and terror in today's Europe as a backdrop. A bomb goes off outside a Kurdish shop in down-town Hamburg. Katja arrives at the scene to find the place crowded with police cars, and to learn that her husband Nuri – the shop owner – and their son Rocco have both been killed.

Crushed by sorrow and despair after losing her loved ones, Katja is further traumatised when the police starts investigating Nuri's drug-dealing past, suspecting that the attack might have been gang-related. Friends and family try to console her, but Katja only finds comfort in drugs. However, she is determined to find the truth and track down the people who caused her husband's death.

In the Fade is Diane Kruger's first German-language film, and she delivers a career-best performance as Katja, a demanding and atypical role for which she was awarded Best Actress at the Cannes film festival this spring. Akin has crafted an engaging script and directs with great confidence, while veteran cinematographer Rainer Klausmann adds great atmosphere with his beautiful depictions of a grey and rainy Hamburg. The story is based on the so-called Kebab murders, a series of racially motivated killings that shook Germany some years ago. According to Akin himself, In the Fade is a response to acts of violence committed by Germany's far-right extremists. Per Eirik Gilsvik

The screenings of the film will be introduced by Fatih Akin in a message recorded especially for the festival.

Fatih Akin (b. 1973) is a German-Turkish director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was educated at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg. After several short films, he made his feature film debut, Short Sharp Shock in 1998. He widely recognized for the critical acclaimed films Head-On (2004), which was awarded the Golden Bear in Berlin, and The Edge of Heaven (2007), who won the prize for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.