Im Juli

I first saw Fatih Akin's German movie 'In July' about a year back and then re-watched it recently. I have just seen two of Akin's movies- his most famous 'The Edge of Heaven' and 'In July'. Comparing the two movies would be to compare an apple to a banana. The only thing I would like to mention is that 'The Edge of Heaven' is a complex movie (in a very very good way) and 'In July' is sort of simpler in its narration. I can't even pick out my favourite of the two because it would involve comparing. Its just that I relate to 'In July' a lot.

It has a number of cliches but the protagonists in this movie are sort of "Everyman" which we used to read about in our English Literature classes in the context of plays written by people like Christopher Marlowe. A rather staid term to describe "everyman" would be a common man.What I really mean here is, the movie fleshes out very normal contemporary characters on the screen. You could just tear apart the screen and exchange your souls with those characters and nothing would change (if you know what I mean!).

Not surprisingly enough, the female protagonist of the movie, named July, is one of my most favourite characters of all time. Its such a simple character but with all the relevant layers of complexity. She sort of defines or projects a very common predicament of "today's woman" (Ahhhh, resorting to stereotypes again!!!) She is soo adventurous in her spirit that she is ready to decide her next holiday destination according to the first car that comes her way. It could be anything, any place. She once went to Afghanistan like this, she tells the male protagonist in the movie, much to his amazement.

However, the beautiful and a rather poignant irony comes from the fact that during this particular trip (the course of the movie), she is so badly in love with this guy and her free spirit sort of clashes with this part of hers which is clinging onto someone who is apparently not even in love with her. She is now changing her adventurous decisions based on this guy's "directions" and allows the strong adventurous streak in her to mellow down. Its all very subtle and well-played out. I just think that it is just such a beautifully etched out character.

Even the male protagonist's character is like "everyman" but it still has some unique personality disorders but this woman's character is bang-on, atleast for me :)

(PS: Btw, check out the picture above, thats Akin in the middle, playing a cute cameo in the movie)