IN THE FADE (AUS DEM NICHTS) World Cinema

Katja (Diane Kruger) lives a life of relative tranquility in Hamburg, Germany, in love with her ex-con husband and besotted with their six-year-old son. When an act of domestic terrorism wrenches away everything Katja holds dear, she finds herself on a stunned path of grieving, tormented investigation and justice by any means necessary. German-Turkish auteur Fatih Akin brilliantly charges the complex narrative down its harrowing course, while Kruger, in ripped jeans and sporting a samurai tattoo, gives a career-topping performance filled with raw anguish and slow-burning resilience. IN THE FADE is a portrait of loss and the repetitive nature of violence, but it’s also a film that is startlingly relevant to our times. – Beth Hanna