In July

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Movie
Original title In July
Country of production Germany , Hungary , Turkey
original language German
Publishing year 2000
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Fatih Akın
script Fatih Akın
production Stefan Schubert
Ralph Schwingel
music Alex Menck
Daniel Puente Encina
Ulrich Kodjo Wendt
camera Pierre Aïm
cut Andrew Bird
occupation
The agreed meeting point in Istanbul
A sun symbol

In July there is a feature film by Fatih Akın from the year 2000. As a genre mix of road movie , comedy and romance , the film tells how two young people, played by Moritz Bleibtreu and Christiane Paul , on a “modern odyssey ” from Hamburg to Istanbul to find oneself and each other.

action

The summer vacation begins, everyone is thinking of vacation trips, except the shy teacher trainee Daniel, who would prefer to stay at home in Hamburg , listen to jazz and read books. Juli, who sells esoteric jewelry, has her eye on him; she believes that something is stuck in him that “wants to get out” and chatters on him an alleged Mayan ring with a sun symbol that will lead him to the woman of his life on the same day. Apparently by the way, she also slips him the flyer for an evening club party - in the hope of winning him over there. Daniel attends the party expectantly and does indeed meet a woman with a large sun symbol on her shirt. Her name is Melek, she is a German-Turk from Berlin and is looking for accommodation for the night. He offers his help, spends the evening with her at a campfire on the banks of the Elbe and finally takes her home with him, where she trustingly falls asleep on his shoulder.

The morning after, Daniel takes her to the airport and separates from her with the resolve to see her again six days later in Istanbul and to confess his love to her. He knows the time and place of an appointment she has planned: Friday, July 8th, 12 noon “under the bridge at the mosque on the Bosporus ”. With this goal in mind, he sets off in his neighbour's decrepit car and only stops once to pick up a hitchhiker . It's july When she arrived at the party the night before (in a dress with an oversized sun symbol), she had just seen Daniel leave with the stranger. In her disappointment, she now wants to leave and has left it to chance where the journey is going. She is briefly irritated when she hears of Daniel's plan, but then determined to take the unexpected chance.

Already in the evening there is a favorable constellation when they are stuck in Bavaria with a breakdown and only one room is free, but Juli's advances in the single bed leave Daniel cold. The next day, the truck driver Leo offers them a ride. Juli flirts with him, which arouses Daniel's jealousy, and Leo challenges Daniel's willingness to fight by fabricating a sexual assault on her. He mimes the loser when Daniel, to Juli's delight, accepts the fight, whereupon the two hitchhikers flee and smuggle themselves onto a barge. After a joint they get closer, but are involuntarily separated in the morning when the crew discovers Daniel and throws him off board as a stowaway . He hitchhiked to Budapest . Luna, the mysterious, lascivious driver who supposedly understands neither English nor German, guides him to a bizarre club, where she mixes a drug in his Cola. In the morning Daniel wakes up in a field out of nowhere; Money, passport and even his Mayan ring are gone.

Back in Budapest, he runs into Luna again at a flea market , who is about to sell his ring. He snatches it from her and, after a wild chase across the market and through the city, taking advantage of the tumult of Luna's arrest, escapes secretly in her minibus. His onward journey ends at the Hungarian - Romanian border, he doesn't have a passport. Miraculously, July appears from the other side. They stage an informal marriage, Daniel is allowed to happen, but he has to give the minibus to the border guard as a "wedding present". At the next gas station, Juli and Daniel steal a car that takes them across Romania to the supposed border river to Bulgaria . Daniel's attempt to "skip" him with the car fails. They cross the actual border river, the Danube , in a rowboat. Daniel's accusation that she is boycotting his plan is dispelled by Juli by secretly stealing away at night.

Left on his own, Daniel discovers a car parked on the side of the road. The driver answers his approach with a punch, drives Daniel, who stands in his way, over the heap, then heaves the supposedly unconscious into his car, lets himself be appeased and introduces himself as Isa, a German Turk from Berlin . Daniel's story, which he wishes to hear, earns him respect. However, the lack of Daniel's passport means that both of them are arrested when crossing the border into Turkey , because the officers discover a body in the trunk. Isa explains to Daniel that it is his uncle from Istanbul who was staying illegally in Berlin and suddenly died. When Isa is brought in for interrogation, the door stays open and Daniel flees.

In the coach he continues to Istanbul. During a stopover, he unexpectedly meets Melek, who is traveling in the opposite direction. She guesses what he's up to, and her face shows him her embarrassment. For his part, he also has an inkling of where she is going: to none other than Isa, her boyfriend (whose body smuggling has been given the official blessing and who is only waiting for his uncle's birth certificate to be released). Even more firmly in his intentions, Daniel embarks on the last part of his journey. As hoped, it is July that awaits him at the said place. The declaration of love she had taught him for Melek is now addressed to her. The next morning they want to hitchhike further south. Isa and Melek greet them happily in the car that she takes with her.

shape

The film plot is not told chronologically. It starts with the meeting between Daniel and Isa "somewhere in Bulgaria " almost 24 hours before the scheduled date. The events of the six days before can be learned from Daniel's story in the car. His retrospective is not just a trick, but part of his identity finding (the “birth” of what, according to Juli, “wants out”), even in two respects: as self and external confirmation. In addition, this stranger who pays him respect is not just anyone: Isa almost looks like a model in everything that Daniel lacks (self-confidence, determination, defensiveness), and he is personally his competitor in advertising for Melek, without both of them knowing about it .

The encounter between the two men is symbolically exaggerated by the fact that it happens at the time of a total solar eclipse . The film shows Isa stopping, getting out and observing the natural process - the moon pushes over the sun - while Daniel approaches him from behind. The resulting constellations - Isa: Moon: Sun and Isa: Daniel: Melek - are very similar, because the moon appears as a “competitor” as well as Daniel. But they are also comparable for another reason: the fact that a man, in order to conquer a woman, happens to ask for help from the man who is in a relationship with her, can be considered as extraordinary as the natural event of a total solar eclipse.

The sun and moon play a central role in the film; The title In July alone awakens expectations of sun, summer, south, travel (and also fulfills them).

  • The Mayan ring with the sun symbol acts as the thing symbol in the film, which July "brings to the man" she wants to conquer. How much of the ring is “real” is irrelevant; it is crucial that the wearer believes in the power that is inherent in him. Daniel absolutely does this at the beginning - and it is only important for him for one purpose: to get moving. Later, when Luna ("moon") robbed him of all valuables, he at least managed to recapture the ring. In the end he must have emancipated himself from him; in any case, he chooses July before discovering the tattoo with the sun symbol on her back.
  • In one of the most atmospheric scenes - after having smoked a joint together, Juli and Daniel are loosened and turned towards each other at the same time for the first time - she teaches him a declaration of love that he should address to Melek. The text is not long, but also not very simple because it is unusually poetic. On the way she has to stir Daniel's ambition so that he learns it. In the end, however, when he addresses it to herself, he dominates it, and the effect is all the greater since both know how much truth it contains:

" Dearest ones, I've walked thousands of miles, I've crossed rivers, moved mountains, I've suffered and put through agony, I've resisted temptation and I've followed the sun to face you and." to tell you: I love you. "

  • A common feature of the ring and the declaration of love is unmistakably the metaphor of the sun, which guides a seeker and which is associated with light, warmth and love. What the ring and the declaration of love also have in common is the constellation: Both come from July, go over to Daniel and include Melek. The key difference is: With the ring, July is calculating and punished, with the declaration of love she is generous and rewarded.
  • The same scene is also about the moon. Both exchange ideas about what music they love (he jazz , she oldies ), to which Daniel builds a small bridge with the admission that he visits his mother every Sunday morning and shares July's taste; he strikes the first few bars of Blue Moon and she joins in. Apart from the fact that what they sing is a love song, a reference to the extraordinary is made again, because in English the phrase once in a blue moon is used to denote something very rare.

Some descriptive names are also worth mentioning . When she introduces herself to Daniel, July leaves it open as to whether her name is a short form of "Julia", connects herself with the month and claims the positive associations that it usually triggers for herself. - Melek means "angel"; Daniel, enraptured by her singing on the Elbe beach at night, says the name suits her, which of course alone says something about him and his projection. - The third woman he meets is Luna ("moon"). In terms of its name, it competes with the "sun" Daniel strives for, and it appears that way. She hides her “dark side” behind constant laughter and alleged incomprehension; it is seductive to men, makes them dependent, eludes them, weakens and robs them. - Leo (“lion”) is convinced that a man has to fight , moves Juli to agree with him and wakes Daniel the slumbering “lion”.

“Odyssey”, derived from Homer 's poem of the same name , has become a synonym for a (long) odyssey. That definitely applies to Daniel and Juli’s journey, which is full of obstacles. Like the antique model, her narrative begins shortly before the destination, and most of what she experiences is described in retrospect . Some of the film characters refer to their classic role models. Luna, for example, combines traits of a beguiling siren and the sorceress Kirke . Leo, on the other hand, functions as a cunning Cyclops , so besides the strength of Polyphemus he also has the wisdom of his conqueror Odysseus .

background

  • The last total solar eclipse to be observed in Central Europe occurred in 1999, the same year in which the film was made; in reality it took place on August 11th, but in the film it took place on July 7th.
  • The film was shot in Hamburg , Budapest and Istanbul . The budget of the film was 5 million Deutschmark appreciated.
  • In July , Senator Film was released in German cinemas on March 9, 2000 . It was shown in Switzerland from September 21, 2000. In the USA, the film was first seen on November 3, 2000 at the Los Angeles Festival of German Cinema. This was followed by other screenings at various film festivals , including on February 9, 2001 at the Berlin International Film Festival . The film was shown in Turkey from July 11, 2003.
  • With 541,399 visitors in 2000, sales of 6,173,099 D-Marks were achieved. This made In July the tenth most successful German cinema film of the year 2000. At the German box offices almost 580,000 visitors were counted. On May 8, 2008, the film was released in Germany by Euro Video with an FSK-12 rating.
  • The part of the film in which Daniel and Juli are traveling through Romania is only shown by fading in photos , as the film team in Romania did not receive a filming permit. - The Romania team named in the credits is correspondingly small (three employees).
  • The director Fatih Akın has a cameo as a customs officer on the Romanian border and his brother Cem as a Turkish border official. They both play chess.
  • With In July, Selim Özdoğan wrote a novel of the same name based on the script for the film, which tells the plot of the film from the perspective of July.
  • In a surreal scene, after sharing a joint on a Danube ship, Juli and Daniel sing the song Blue Moon , which turns into a version of the Cowboy Junkies . Originally Friday I'm In Love by The Cure intended for the duet, but the cost for the rights were too high, and the screenplay was rewritten at the last moment. So, surprisingly, Juli loves oldies .
  • Daniel's declaration of love is quoted in a slightly different form in the song "Pardon Princess" by the band NTS .
  • The classroom shown at the beginning of the film is actually the biology hall of a Hamburg high school, where Fatih Akın graduated from high school.

reception

The film-dienst (17/2000) sees the feature film as an "eventful, extremely entertaining mixture of road movie and romantic comedy with concise performance and an appealing and playful, confident use of explicitly cinematic means".

The video week judges the film as a “romantic, lively road movie. Set up as a classic comedy of mistaken identity, the story develops in the tried and tested manner, but surprises time and again with unexpected twists and turns and funny action sequences. "

According to Blickpunkt Film, “In July” is “a wonderful film fairy tale”.

"In July" is a simple, almost naive love story [...] A small film with a great feeling - as beautiful and exciting as love, "said Cinema .

According to epd Film 9/2000, the film is "... a grandiose lucky bag full of kitsch and poetry, slapstick and melodrama, grand gestures and beautiful details".

The internet portal filmszene judged: "Fatih Akin's own little appearance as a Romanian border guard:" No Pasaport, no Romania ". Sensational. Other directing ideas are small but invaluable ornaments in an otherwise rather solid film. "

Awards

  • German Film Award 2001 to Moritz Bleibtreu in the Best Actor category
  • Jupiter 2001
    • to Fatih Akın in the category Best German Director
    • to Moritz Bleibtreu in the Best German Actor category
  • Tromsø International Film Festival Audience Award to Fatih Akın in the Best Director category

DVD publications

  • In July Euro Video, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for In July . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2008 (PDF; test number: 85 047 DVD).
  2. ↑ a b In July. Working materials for teaching , Goethe-Institut , 2004, accessed on June 27, 2018.
  3. ↑ Georg Seeßlen: In July. Film review , accessed June 27, 2018.
  4. ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: In July. Film review , accessed June 27, 2018.
  5. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Filming locations  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.imdb.de  
  6. ↑ a b Internet Movie Database : budget and box office results  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.imdb.de  
  7. ↑ a b c Lothar R. Just: Film-Jahrbuch 2001 . Heyne-Verlag, Munich 2001. Page 631
  8. ↑ a b c d Internet Movie Database : Start dates  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.imdb.de  
  9. ↑ a b c d Internet Movie Database : Background information
  10. ↑ film service , 17/2000
  11. ↑ Video week
  12. ↑ Focus on film
  13. ↑ Karola Kostede: In July. Editorial criticism. In: Cinema . 2000, accessed January 8, 2019 .
  14. ↑ epd film 9/2000
  15. ^ Film scene R. Leurs: In July. In: filmszene. 2000, accessed January 21, 2009 .
  16. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Nominations and Awards