The Fire (2011) User Reviews

Heavy material at times, but mostly executed profoundly

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 19 April 2018]

"Der Brand" is a German German-language film from 2011, so it is already over five years old. Director, writer and lead actor are all females here, which may give a more intimate take on a complicated sucject here. This is the story of a successful woman, who one day returning from a party gets raped by a suitor. This is just the beginning. Everything we see afterward is how this night changed her life, how she has to deal with the consequence in terms of legal issues, relationship issues, new friends etc. And what she really wants in order to have justice brought upon the perpetrator, maybe even in terms of revenge by destroying the man's life and marriage. The last thing I mentioned is maybe not handled 100% all the time in a realistic way, but other than that I felt that this is a pretty good movie with strong performances all around, not just by lead actress Maja Schöne, but also by all the supporting players. There aren't too many other female characters in here, so the focus stays 100% on the central character, but there are several major male supporting players we have here and these are portrayed by actors in several cases like Möhring and Fitz who are pretty famous these days in Germany here and regularly appear as lead players in new projects. as for this film, I think it also does a really fine job with not just depicting the consequences to chöne's character, but also to the people in her life, especially her significant other. That's one thing I really liked here. The ways in which the movie elaborates on how the victim is pushed in the offender role (during one scene especially badly with a "blame the victim" comment and elaboration) were not always coherent and successful, even felt a bit cheap at times to evoke sympathy from the audience I guess. No need though, the mere idea of being raped is enough to evoke sympathy from every sensitive human being. But there are enough other aspects and references in here that make this a really good take on the subject. It surprises me a bit to see the key players from the crew here not having the career I would expect success-wise as here they really came up with something of great quality and am glad to see that it also garnered a decent deal of awards recognition. If you are ready for the heavy subject, then you definitely should see this movie. Beware of triggers though. And finally, another thing I liked is that they never attempted to make this a crime or suspense movie really. We know right away who is the one that did it and that is a good thing because the character study component is elaborated on this way far more convincingly as if they had thrown in some generic suspense for the sake of it. Also interesting how he acts as a savior when she is harrassed by the young guys that crucial night. That's all I think. I give "The Fire" a thumbs-up for sure. Go see it.