#470 - Christian Petzold on Afire

This week we’re excited to present a conversation with director Christian Petzold about his new film, Afire, now playing in our theaters courtesy of Janus and Sideshow Films. Set against the backdrop of a seaside town threatened by encroaching wildfires, Christian Petzold’s latest is a breezy, often funny, yet emotionally layered melodrama of creative and romantic insecurities along the German Riviera. The film centers around Leon, a disgruntled novelist struggling to finish his manuscript while traveling with his photographer friend to a vacation home near the Baltic Sea, where they’re met by an unexpected third house guest, Nadja (Paula Beer;, whose presence distracts Leon as much as it cringingly exposes his self-obsessed bubble. Full of sunkissed tints and nocturnal blues, Afire finds the director operating with a deceptively light touch, but what starts as a hangout comedy gradually opens up into something entirely more surprising and psychologically complex. The film is the winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. This conversation was moderated by Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor, Devika Girish.