BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — “In the Fade,” a German film that tackles terrorism from multiple, and multicultural, perspectives won the Golden Globe on Sunday for best foreign language film.
“How’d that happen?” said a stunned Fatih Akin as he accepted the award. “Thank you for elevating this movie even though it’s in a foreign language.”
Akin is a German-born filmmaker of Turkish descent whose film tells the tale of a woman, played by Diane Kruger, whose son and Turkish husband are killed in a bomb attack.
“I’m a German filmmaker, I live in Germany, I was born in Germany,” Akin said later backstage, “but my heart is in Turkey.”
The film alludes to a series of actual killings that shook Germany six years ago, when it came to light that police had spent more time investigating the possible mob connections of migrant victims than the tell-tale signs of the far-right plot eventually uncovered.
Kruger, a native German acting in her first German film, won best actress for the performance at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for playing the devastated mother.
Kruger said the role forever changed the way she looks at terrorism.
“I got to witness what those families go through,” she said backstage at the Globes. “I know they have a name and a life to live.”
Fatih said he was stunned that by looking inward he has been accepted on the international stage — and hoped the victory would help sell more tickets in Germany, where “In the Fade” hasn’t fared well.
“This is the most personal film I did,” he said, “and it brought me here.”