In the Fade, German director Fatih Akin’s new drama about tragedy, xenophobia, and weaponized grief, is split into three parts. First is “Family,” focusing on Katja (Diane Kruger), her Turkish immigrant husband Nuri (Numan Acar), and their adorable son Rocco (Rafael Santana). They live in a sleek, comfortable home and operate their own business in Hamburg, but their domestic bliss is annihilated when a targeted nail bomb kills Nuri and Rocco.
When she’s called in for questioning, Katja suspects it’s the work of neo-Nazis—she saw another German woman leave her bike unlocked outside Nuri’s office on the day of the attack. But investigators ignore her and speculate, based on Nuri’s Kurdish roots and drug-dealing past, that he had a connection to the Turkish mafia.