ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Neo-Nazi

In the Fade – Justice? Revenge?

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“They’ll get their punishment. I promise you.”

Justice. Revenge. Are they the same? Are they even related? In the Fade from Fatih Akin is the story of a search for justice, and what happens when that justice is denied. In the Fade is Germany’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film.

Katja (Diane Kruger) has a wonderful life with her husband Nuri and young son Rocco. Her world is shattered when Nuri and Rocco are killed in a terrorist bombing. She can barely make it through the funeral, and her life is spiraling downward until two neo-Nazis are charged with the crime. From there on, her only mission is to see justice done.

The film plays out in three acts, entitled “The Family” (meeting the family, the bombing, the grief), “Justice” (the trial), and “The Sea” (Katja’s actions after the trial). Katja’s grief is the driving force through it all. At times her grief leads her to self-destructive behavior. It is only when she has hope that the killers will be punished that she seems to have a reason to live. But what would happen if things didn’t work out in the trial?

In press notes Akin (who was born in Germany to Turkish immigrant parents) notes that the story is inspired by xenophobic killings by members of the National Socialist Underground. But he chose to make a survivor (Katja) the empathetic center of the film. There is no attempt to justify the murderers’ perspective. Rather we remain totally focused on Katja and her emotional struggle before, during and after the trial. It is in that struggle that Akin is able to take us into the darkness of revenge.

How do we differentiate between justice and vengeance? We often think of the two as almost synonymous. However, justice connotes a high ideal—even a biblical ideal. It is a call to bring things back into alignment. Justice should help to create healing and reconciliation. Revenge, on the other hand, may seem like it is making something right, but in fact it only serves to create more pain and suffering. Revenge may seem like an imperfect form of justice, in that it pays back pain for pain. In the end it is only a counterfeit.

The emotional journey we take with Katja eventually takes us to some very dark possibilities as she responds to injustice. Even in this she is driven more by her grief than by the ideal of justice. The combination of grief, anger, and vengeance leads to a result that may seem inevitable, but fails to leave us feeling that justice or healing has been achieved.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Imperium: A World of Hatred and Lies

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“There really is only one essential ingredient to fascism—victimhood.”

This political season seems fraught with warnings of fascism and racially charged rhetoric. Campaigns have often used fear and xenophobia as foundations. “Black Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter”, “All Lives Matter” vie for media attention. Sometimes it seems that we are on a powder keg and the fuse is burning. In reality there are those who would like to set off that powder keg, and they may not be who we think they are. Imperium, inspired by real events, is the story of a young FBI agent who infiltrated the White Supremacist movement.

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After radioactive material goes missing from a truck accident, the FBI fears terrorists may have gotten their hands on it and could make a dirty bomb. Most agents are concentrating on possible Islamic terrorists, but Agent Angela Zamparo (Toni Collette) remembers that the Oklahoma City Bombing was done by a White Supremacist hoping to start a race war. She recruits newbie agent Nate Foster (Daniel Radcliffe) to go underground in an attempt to find the culprits.

For Foster it is a descent into a very strange land. He discovers that the movement is much more varied than we might think. It is not a monolith of hate, but rather various groups with some common values that don’t always get along. There are skinheads, groups that try to turn the Bible into Nazi doctrine and use their church as cover for their activities, a nationally known hatemongering radio host, even nice middle class people who host suburban barbeques and listen to classical music all the while espousing racial animosity.

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These are not just angry, crazy people (although some certainly are). They see the world through lenses that reflect not just racism, but are tied to a whole set of literature and philosophy that may have no credence outside the movement, but is taken as ultimate truth by those within it. Such certainly makes it nearly impossible to bring reason into the discussion.

While the film is designed as an action-thriller (and works moderately well as such), it may better serve as exposure to the depth of the hatred that exists in parts of our society. We may often think it is a small and therefore powerless group, but many of the ideas they espouse have found their ways into the political discussion this year in seemingly acceptable forms. Hatred and fear, especially when cloaked in lies purporting to be truth, is not what either America or the Kingdom of God are about. Perhaps this film will help us recognize the kinds of language that have given rise in some people’s minds of the threat of fascism in the current political climate.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate Premiere

The Evil Within (and Without): The Story of God (Ep. 5)

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Past Articles in This Series: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
Shrieking Shack
Evil is one of those things that we, as humans, have to deal with on a daily basis.  If you’re not sure about this, all it takes is a few minutes of watching television or browsing the news headlines on a phone. Although our overall desire is to be and do good in all situations (including our thoughts), we aren’t able to do it with 100% effectiveness our entire lives. The Apostle Paul shared this struggle as follows: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19 NIV) So where does all of this come from?  Morgan Freeman, in the penultimate episode of The Story of God (National Geographic, 9 PM/8 Central tonight), tackles this subject and reveals some enlightening things about humanity and their propensity for evil.

This episode starts off with a visit to a maximum security prison and a challenging conversation with a person convicted of some pretty heinous crimes (I’ll let you discover what they are for yourself). When Freeman asks the prisoner why they happened, he says, “I had a desire, an impulse, and I wasn’t able to stop myself from acting on the impulse.” He’s also not convinced that if released, he could avoid doing the crimes again.

This brings up the question, “Where does evil come from?”

To attempt an answer, Freeman looks at how a number of faiths deal with the issue. The early Egyptians believed that when a person was filled with evil or sin, their heart became heavy. Their heart would be weighed on a scale upon death against truth; the result would determine their eternal destiny. Hindus think evil may have to do with the spirits of dead ancestors who weren’t happy; they offer sacrifices upon realizing this is the case. Zoroastrians believe evil is a battle within to be fought with good thoughts, words, and deeds (in that specific order). Buddhists try to counter the evil within using meditation and ritual. And Christians believe that Adam and Eve’s sin started a chain reaction of events that transfers evil to each person upon birth. This is why Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allows believers to combat—and eventually conquer—Satan and his minions.

Morgan Freeman
(Photo credit: National Geographic Channels/Matthew Paul Turner)

Freeman has a fascinating talk with Brian Widener, a former Neo-Nazi, during the episode. Widener was tattooed beyond recognition during this time, but after getting married and having a child, he realized the error of his ways and had them removed from his face over a period of 2½ years. He states he found God in the middle of the process, although he admits he’s not sure what that looks like.  Can evil be contained and washed away? Freeman asks before ending with a baptism ceremony in a river—the Christian symbol of a regenerated life through belief in Jesus.

For me, one interesting point of the episode involved a scientist in New Zealand who showcased an experiment involving kids and the need for a higher being to keep order and control using a game (again, I’ll let you see what that looks like). To me, it reveals the propensity of evil in an individual’s heart when they think they can get away with something.  As the prophet Jeremiah notes, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?” Science can attempt to decode the reasoning for why we do things and discover patterns of behavior, but the heart is fatally diseased, prone to evil from the outset. In this way, we are all wretched (there’s the Apostle Paul again), which is the exact reason why we live in a world full of sin. How we deal with the evil within (and without) says a lot about our beliefs and, in many ways, our outlook on the world we inhabit.