Im Juli.

Film: Im Juli.
Director: Fatih Akin
Year: 2000
15 word synap:
Man travels turkey for love, but finds true love is at his side all along.
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I had seen clips of this film in some German classes of mine in college and it seemed promising. Since i am soft on most things German, i was eager to watch and let myself fall back into the ease of the German language. My husband was less than excited considering that most foreign films tend to be more "slow" than American films. Still, comparatively I would say that this film, is quiet fast paced, funny, light hearted and fun.

While quiet predictable as far as love stories go, you pretty much know that the main character, a geeky teacher, will end up with the free spirited jewelry seller in the end. Instead, the main part of the story is about how they are going to get to get instead of that they are going to get together. While the ending ties up a little too nicely for my taste, Mr. Akin -- real life is never that tidy! -- over all the story is quiet fun.

Cinematically, i would say the filming had a great deal to be desired. The film takes place from Hamburg to Istanbul and I had hoped for some beautiful vistas and creative film making but instead i got very limited in terms of camera creativity. Still, the two main characters and the crazy Luna are pretty intriguing that the scenery gets lost anyway.

Over all, this film not only pass my expectations for a unique love story, but my husband gave his thumbs up for surpassing his expectations of a foreign film that was far from dry.