Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #12. Christian Petzold’s Afire

Afire

So deserving and so close at cracking our top 10, the great German filmmaker Christian Petzold continues at his break-neck speed of quantity and quality. Production on Afire (formerly going by The Red Sky) took place last summer in the month of June in Germany. Paula Beer returns for a second outing with Petzold, and we also find Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt in what is the second part in fairy tale trilogy and focuses on  passion between men. Schramm Film Koerner & Weber’s Florian Koerner von Gustorf and Michael Weber produced.

Gist: A small holiday house by the baltic sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so do their emotions. Happiness, lust and love; but also jealousies, resentments and tensions. Meanwhile the forests burn. And before long, the flames are there.

Release Date/Prediction: If it indeed has an April domestic release in Germany then we are looking at a guaranteed spot for a run at the Golden Bear.