The spirits are calling

The sufferings of young Faris (Eren M. Güvercin). Farasha (Mariam Dawoud) only hugs the protagonist in his dreams.

The sufferings of young Faris (Eren M. Güvercin). Farasha (Mariam Dawoud) only hugs the protagonist in his dreams.

Films that take risks are now rare in German cinema. There are actually two proven models of success that the film scene relies on: on the one hand, the arthouse cinema, secured by film funding, with sophisticated, complex film dramas by, for example, Angela Schanelec, Valeska Grisebach, Christian Petzold; on the other hand, the format of mainstream comedy. Directors like Bora Dagtekin, Til Schweiger and “Bully” Herbig direct their productions in an audience-oriented manner, but sometimes things get a little awkward. Box office successes such as “The Perfect Holiday”, “Manitu's Shoe”, “Extrawurst” and “Steckerlfischfiasco” lure audiences with catchy themes and direct humor.

The so-called smart mainstream, i.e. material that is told in a sophisticated way but still entertains a larger audience, has a difficult time in Germany. Fatih Akin is one of the few directors who regularly manages the balancing act between avant-garde cinema and box office success. Worth remembering are “Against the Wall”, “Soul Kitchen”, the Wolfgang Herrndorf film adaptation “Tschick”, “Rheingold” and the historical drama “Amrum”. The Hamburg filmmaker knows how to place his work precisely between art and commercially oriented cinema - like hardly anyone else in Germany. Tom Tykwer comes to mind at this point, Caroline Link, İlker Çatak since his successes “The Teacher's Room” and “Yellow Letters”. Akin is characterized by a special feeling for a young audience and also the courage to get involved with unusual material.

Advocates of pure cinematic art could accuse Akin of kitsch, exaggeration or pathos. But exaggeration is a cinematic virtue here.

His new film “Ghosts” is also a risk: it’s about the undying love between two high school graduates. It's love at first sight. A love beyond dating apps. One that ignites high above the roofs of the city, during a high school graduation party on the Hamburg television tower, where two kindred souls meet: the young, ambitious Farasha (Mariam Dawoud) and Faris (Eren M. Güvercin), who, despite his A high school diploma, is not sure whether he can study physics. It is not least because of these two gifted actors that the viewer is only too happy to buy the film's magical love encounter. The credibility of the two is a prerequisite for everything that follows. Anyone who actually still believes in true love in these times is considered a hopeless romantic or simply crazy. Which probably amounts to the same thing.

“Ghosts” is about love beyond death. The serious accident happened on the day they met, when 20-year-old Faris drove his rental car into the opposite lane in the rain and ended up drowning in the Elbe along with his passengers. The young Farasha, who fled the Syrian civil war with her family and had only been in Germany for a few years, does not survive the accident. Two more friends die. Faris blames himself for the fatal crash and seems to lose his mind over it. Is it the madness that speaks from the androgynous boy when he encounters his love in his dreams night after night, which lures him to himself - into the realm of death?

Akin's new film is actually one that risks a lot, one that has the bold premise that the beloved is a dead woman. The risk is worth it. “Ghosts” is probably the most beautiful German film of the year. And at the same time the saddest, most oppressive and disturbing. Because the theme that hangs over everything is the protagonist's weariness with life, who is toying with the idea of ​​following his lover to death.

“Ghosts” doesn’t even bother to approach the topic of suicidal thoughts in a cautious, detour. Akin has always been someone who directs his films directly to the center of emotion, to the area of ​​deep feelings. He has found the best cast for this: In addition to the magnificently acting Eren M. Güvercin - who is still known to many from the Berlin Volksbühne Theater and was recently seen in productions such as "Euphorie" and "Mozart Mozart" - Mariam Dawoud, Carlotta von Falkenhayn, Gabriel-Winner Amorin and David Schütter play emotionally present, precisely and effectively in their roles.

The successful character drawing is also thanks to the congenial script written by Ruth Toma, who prepared the material together with Akin. The impending suicide of the boy, whose role Güvercin plays with a raw mixture of the fragility, impulsiveness and depth of soul of a man of sorrows, is shown in images like a tightrope walk high up on the television tower, on the edge of the abyss. Advocates of pure cinematic art could accuse Akin of kitsch, exaggeration or pathos. But exaggeration is a cinematic virtue here. Akin once again demonstrates his tremendous instinct for effective images, beyond the German television station aesthetics.

As important as the story in “Ghosts” is, what matters is how it is told. In the dream sequences as well as on the level of the real events - both are almost indistinguishable - the protagonists move in spaces of urban desolation, lonely places of transition, which, precisely because of their emptiness, offer a successful contrast to the intense emotionality of the film. In these shots, cameraman Frank Griebe captures them as projection surfaces for the longing, loss and transcendence of the characters involved and especially the two protagonists. Hamburg, with its vastness and city lights, becomes an almost metaphysical space. The faces of the characters, in which grief has been etched, are staged like landscapes.

The film plot spans 40 days. According to Islamic and Christian Orthodox beliefs, it is a time of mourning. During this time, the bereaved and the dead can still maintain contact before the spirits disappear to another place. The fact that Akin evokes the appeal of the afterlife naturally makes him a romantic, a species that has become rare even among filmmakers these days, but his film also shows that sometimes in order to believe in life again, you have to go to the extreme limit. The saving grace can be, in a completely mundane and simple way, a call on your smartphone.

For the images that Akin finds at the climax and at the decisive moment of the plot, it is worth going to the cinema with the largest screen in the city. Which recent German film can this be said about?

Ghosts (D 2026). Book: Fatih Akin and Ruth Toma. Director: Fatih Akin. Actors: Mariam Dawoud, Carlotta von Falkenhayn, Eren M. Güvercin, Gabriel-Winner Amorin and David Schütter. Cinema release: November 5th