Aus dem Nichts (2017)

Directed by: Fatih Akin | 106 minutes | crime, drama | Actors: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto, Numan Acar, Samia Muriel Chancrin, Johannes Krisch, Ulrich Tukur, Ulrich Brandhoff, Hanna Hilsdorf, Jessica McIntyre, Karin Neuhäuser, Uwe Rohde, Rafael Santana, Siir Eloglu, Yannis Economides

Today, the perpetrators of attacks are usually sought in religious circles. And if they do not turn out to be (Islamic) terrorists, then people quickly point in the direction of the criminal circuit. Director Fatih Akin (winner of the Golden Bear for ‘Gegen die Wand’ in 2004) wants to show in his film ‘Aus dem Nichts’ (2017), which applies that the perpetrator(s) may also have very different motives. as the first cinema film in which the extreme right-wing terror of the Nationalsozialistischeer Untergrund (NSU) is central. The facts are shocking: nine ethnic minority traders and a policewoman were killed in Germany between 2000 and 2007 in terrorist actions by the NSU. Akin, himself the son of Turkish immigrants, is known for his committed work that examines the lives of (particularly) Turks in Germany. Far-right attacks are a blind spot in Europe; especially in Germany it is a sensitive subject that is preferable to avoid. As if they think: if we pay as little attention to it as possible, it will go away on its own. In ‘Aus dem Nichts’ he puts his finger on the sore spot: the terror of a group such as the NSU is a serious problem that causes enormous suffering and should absolutely not be denied.

The story is told from the perspective of Katja (Diane Kruger, who was awarded a Golden Palm for best actress for her penetrating performance in Cannes). She is married to Nuri (Numan Acar), a former drug dealer of Turkish-Kurdish descent who has since made amends and now runs a translation and administration office in the so-called ‘Turkish Quarter’ in Hamburg. Together they have a son, six-year-old Rocco (Rafael Santana). One afternoon Katja agreed to go to the sauna with a friend. She therefore brings Rocco to Nuri’s office for a few hours. When she leaves, she warns a woman not to leave her bicycle unattended just like that – ‘not in this neighborhood’ – and unsuspectingly she gets into her car. There is a nail bomb in the briefcase on the back of the woman’s bicycle, which ends the lives of Nuri and little Rocco a few minutes later. When Katja later hears what happened, she is inconsolable. Are they sure that her husband and child are the ones who died? Is there no confusion of persons? Her disbelief gives way to shock, pain, pure mourning. Because of Nuri’s past, the police quickly look for the perpetrator in the criminal corner, but Katja is sure that her husband is no longer involved in drug trafficking. She is sure: the perpetrators are Nazis. She and her lawyer Danilo Fava (Denis Moschitto) do everything they can to enforce justice in court. But it is difficult to compete with a blind spot…

Like no other, Fatih Akin knows how to focus on emotion in his films. Certainly in the first part of his film, in which it revolves around the attack and its aftermath, he needs few words to tell his story. The rollercoaster of emotions that shoot through Katja can be skimmed off Diane Kruger’s face. By stripping his film of all the frills, Akin makes us feel her despair, disbelief, misunderstanding, pain and anger, most powerfully in the scene where she returns to the crime scene and sees the utter devastation. Her husband and child have been swept away, what remains is a smear of blood on the wall. She can’t get any closer to them. Because she looked one of the perpetrators in the eye, you as a viewer do not doubt for a moment about the facts of the attack and we support Katja in her fight for justice and desire for revenge. ‘Aus dem Nichts’ works on many levels. On the one hand, Akin shows how quickly we make our judgment when we hear about an attack, while we know nothing about the background of the victims. In addition, we also see how our legal system can let us down; as if Katja hadn’t been wronged enough, the courts also desert her.

But the most powerful is ‘Aus dem Nichts’, which was awarded the Golden Globe for best foreign film, especially in the way it shows the psychological devastation experienced by relatives of attacks. How much injustice can be done to a person? As a viewer you feel just as powerless as Katja. Her desire to take revenge, one way or another, is justifiable in this case. But how? That Katja takes matters into her own hands and opts for an extreme act of desperation, with which the film ends in a shocking way, is somehow understandable, even if we are taught from an early age that evil should not be repaid with evil. Katja has her own sense of justice and acts in a way that others might think and fantasize about, but would never actually do. And with that, Akin certainly makes his viewers think with this confrontational and harrowing film about family, justice and revenge.