Im Juli

Plot synopsis:
The film begins on a hot summer day on a country road. A man stops by the side of the road and watches a solar eclipse. When it is over, he opens his trunk and sprays bug spray on the dead body he has inside. A hitchhiker then comes up behind him to ask for a ride but is instead hit by the man's car. The driver decides to come back and pick up the hitchhiker's body from the road. The drivers name is Isa (Mehmet Kurtulus) and he is heading to Turkey. He finds out the hitchhiker's name is Daniel (Moritz Bleibtrau), who is a student teacher on his way to Turkey also to find a girl and the flashback of his love story begins.Daniel first meets Juli (Christiane Paul) when she calls him over to her stand on the street in Hamburg where she sells jewelry. She sells him an ancient Mayan ring with a sun on it and tells him that it will lead him to the woman who will bring him true happiness. She also invites him to a party that night.Daniel goes to the party and sees a girl with a picture of a sun on her shirt. She asks him if he knows of a cheap place to stay for the night. He finds out her name is Melek (Idil Üner), a Turkish name. As they leave the party, Juli sees them and one sees that she has a picture of a sun on her dress.Melek stays at Daniel's apartment and takes her to the airport the next day. He cries as she leaves for Istanbul, thinking that they were meant to be together.Juli decides to hitchhike and go wherever the first car to pick her up is going. Daniel is the first person to stop and she hops in the car with him. He tells her he's heading to Istanbul because the ring she sold him worked and he's found the girl of his dreams. She tells him that she's also going to Istanbul.The car they are driving breaks down in Bavaria and they have to share a bed that night in a tiny motel. The next morning, they argue about which route they should take to get to Turkey. A truck driver named Leo going to Budapest picks them up. They stop at a bar and Daniel waits outside while the other two go in and have a beer. Juli tells Leo that she wishes Daniel would fight for her. Leo asks Juli to dance with him and begins grabbing her inappropriately. Juli yells for Daniel who comes in and saves Juli.Juli and Daniel take a boat on the Danube and smoke weed, which makes them float in the air. Juli asks Daniel what he is going to say when he finds the girl he's after. He doesn't know and she gives him a declaration of love to say to her.They wake up on the boat the next morning and the crew throws Daniel overboard, separating he and Juli. Daniel finds land and a girl driving a beat-up van picks him up. She takes him to a bar to get some food and drugs his soda. Daniel soon finds himself in the girl's van again and still under drugs. The girl starts to sensually manipulate Daniel's bodily movements and steals his sun ring.Daniel wakes up surrounded by barrels of hay and is shot at by a farmer. He finds out he is in Budapest and goes to a street market where he sees the girl selling his sun ring. He grabs it from the stand and runs with a merchant on his tail, giving the girl a chance to steal from another merchant. She also runs and Daniel eventually hops onto the roof of the temptress's van, commencing a chase. The chase ends after Daniel and the girl driving the van evade the pursuing merchant and are stopped by the police. Daniel escapes with the van without the police seeing him as the girl is arrested.Daniel comes to the border of Romania, but soon realizes that the temptress stole his passport and the guard won't let him cross. Just then, Juli comes out of a bathroom right across the border. They tell the border guard they are married so that he can join her in Romania. She wants Daniel to repeat the love speech she told him earlier, but he can't remember it. He promises Juli that he will learn it. The border guard makes them give him the van Daniel was driving as a gift.Daniel and Juli steal a car from a repair shop and travel through Romania, taking photos of everything they see and do. Daniel knows he cannot get to Bulgaria without a passport and tries to jump his car over a small river to get around crossing the official border. The car sinks and they are again without transportation. Daniel tells Juli that it's all her fault that he has gotten into all these messes and hasn't gotten to Istanbul yet. That night, while Daniels asleep, Juli hitchhikes again. Daniel wakes up and sees the solar eclipse, bringing the story back to the point when he is picked up by Isa.Isa and Daniel pull up to the border of Turkey at this point, but a guard finds the corpse in the trunk and the two are arrested. Isa explains to Daniel that the corpse is his uncle from Turkey who died while visiting his family in Germany. Daniel silently escapes from jail and Isa is able to explain why he had a body in the trunk and is let off as soon as he gets his uncle's birth certificate.Daniel waits in a café for a bus to Istanbul, when he runs into Melek. Melek says she has to take something to the border and Daniel realizes that Melek is actually Isa's girlfriend and that she's bringing him his uncle's birth certificate.Daniel arrives in Istanbul and finds Juli waiting for him. He recites the speech she told him to say and they kiss. They hitchhike together and are picked up by Isa and Melek. As Juli gets into the car, Daniel sees the sun tattoo on her back for the first time.

Tags: romantic, psychedelic, entertaining

Review:
Part romantic comedy and part road picture, the story is full of twists and delights as it takes you on a ride across Europe, switching languages as we go - German, English, Bulgarian, Turkish.
The audiences here at the film festival loved it and it was a near-miss for audience favorite (right behind another more serious German film), but this is quite an achievement for a film that's just light entertainment.Hopefully, this film will find greater distribution, and encourage it's filmmakers to make more movies.
In fact, it's one of the best things that we have seen from that country in a while, which proves that when a talent like Mr. Akin is at the helm, one must rush to see whatever he decides to present for us.In fact, the beginning of the film is kind of disorienting.
Right after he has been left behind, we meet him again in different circumstances as he is teaching math to a group of inattentive students who are preparing for their summer vacations.Daniel, after meeting Juli, buys a Mayan sun ring that she promises will let him meet a woman who will have a ring to match his, that same night, and that woman will be his true love.
The only problem is that in taking to the road, Daniel discovers himself and gets to meet his true love at the end.The film is made more enjoyable by Mortiz Bleibtreu's work in it.
Lovely Idil Uner is seen as Melek and Mehmet Kurtulus is Isa and Branke Katic plays Luna.The film is a road movie that shows some beautiful European countryside and byways as the trip progresses from Germany to its end in Istanbul.
I haven't seen a film that makes me feel this good for a long time.
I saw couple of German films that directed by young directors (some of them second generation Turkish ones) lately.
In the film we see a variety of eccentric (Luna), free spirited (Juli), boring (Daniel), dull (the guardians at the Romanian and Turkish borders) people.
Its competitors where among other excellent films "Love is a bitch", "Girl on the bridge", "Girl of your dreams", "Her eyes", "Mifunes song".The movie is a sort of feel-good road movie through the Balkans.
It tells the rather simple story of a young, intelligent man (Moritz Bleibtreu) who doesn't realize that the woman of his dreams (a dread-locked Christiane Paul) is right next to him.
(And maybe they wouldn't have done it even with this script - director Fatih Akin is from Turkey!) Bleibtreu, who had a wonderful bit-part as a dumb, tarantinesque killer in "Knockin' on Heaven's door" is very appealing here, but it is the tall and beautiful Christiane Paul (from "Das Leben ist eine Baustelle"/Life is under construction), who delivers the emotional knockout punches.
There are so many great scenes: Daniel and Juli getting stoned and singing "Blue Moon", Luna (played incredibly sexy by Branka Katic) laughing crazily during the chase through Budapest or the photos of Romania (who took those when both Daniel and Juli are in the picture?)But you better don't scrutinize the logic too closely and while the dialogue also could have been more inspired and witty (as in Fatih Akin's first film "Kurz und schmerzlos"), "Im Juli" more than makes up for it with great characters, inventive cinematography (especially in the hallucinating scenes), a wonderful soundtrack and the rarely seen locations of SouthEastEurope.
All those meetings and coincidences looked a little unbelievable first time, but now I think everything makes sense if we see the story as an allegorymeaningful but at the same time light and funny.The playfulness of the script might perhaps make some miss the message of the movie, but the message actually is there and is a strong one.
After the sun comes out again it looks like dark gets out of Daniel's mind and the sun shows him the right way this time: that Juli was the one he had been searching all along.
The whole journey changes Daniel incredibly much as with her sun amulet, Juli learns him to do the same as her: trust faith and go on searching for happiness.
The ending was really perfect: all the 4 characters' roads coming together and Daniel finally seeing the ultimate proof that he had found what he was looking for.What I enjoyed about the movie is that although the message is a serious one, the story is so light and everything goes on really fast and surprising.
All the actors, playing the Turkish guy, Luna or the officer at the Romanian border, looked they were really enjoying their roles and brought most of the movie's humour: great, subtle and nothing Hollywood like.All in all, I thought it was a really enjoyable movie, so different from the usual productions we get from Hollywood.
Moritz Bleibtreu (one of my favorite german actors) plays Daniel, a young secondary school teacher in Hamburg.
A chaotic trip through southern Europe begins...A romantic road movie with young and talented actors.
It was really surprising to see Moritz Bleibtreu drinking Turkish tea in the Turkish border, it was really amazing to see A+ acting from Turkish actors, it was really a NEW thing to watch a superior road trip movie..and the list goes on.
If you want to leave the theatre with a smiling face, I suggest you to see this movie.The acting, image transitions, script, story narration and editing are just a few must see parts of Im Juli.
This German movie is everything a road trip movie should be: fun, surprising, unabashedly romantic, filled with well-developed characters and plot twists interesting enough to hold one's attention throughout.
If this is true, then both Christiane and Moritz Bleibtreu (who plays Daniel Bannier) do a marvelous job of seducing the audience, both are very likable and by the second reel you are cheering for them to be together.The plot has the basic framework of a road movie/romantic comedy.
He is disappointed that she is meeting someone who she might be in love with, but after they part ways he decides to go to Istanbul and meet her under the bridge on the night of her meeting with this other man.Meanwhile Juli, having seen Daniel and Melek together becomes depressed and decides to leave the city.
Along the way, Juli falls even further in love with Daniel even though he is on a quest to meet another woman.
As they make their way, the usual kinds of twists and turns that one expects in a comedic road movie crop up: the car breaks down, they lose all their money and are forced to depend on the kindness of a quirky bunch of characters to complete their journey.
As he loosens his hold his heart also opens to Juli, and when she leaves him to complete his odyssey alone (an act of unselfish love, and an indicator that Juli is learning lessons herself), he finally realizes that the girl he truly wanted was with him all the while.Near the end of his trek he runs into the very girl he is going to Istanbul to meet and finds her very happy to see him.
I'll leave you to find out the rest, but rest assured there will be no unhappy ending here.As Hollywood tries to come up with increasingly improbable scenarios to breathe new life into the romantic comedy, German director Faith Akin follows a familiar path and allows the heart of these characters to draw us into the story.
The exotic places they travel through becomes a separate character as well, and Akin allows the beauty and mystery of these locals to seduce as much as the main characters do.The charm of this movie is in the reminder that humans the world over feel the same excitement and happiness when falling in love.
After a somewhat wooden start in Hamburg, the movie unfolds in a very endearing way while the main characters travel to Istanbul.
I came across Faith Akin's movie "Im Juli" /("In July") by pure chance and the fact that it had Moritz Bleibtreu (from "Run Lola Run" fame) in it made it appeal to me since I liked Moritz in previous other movies.The movie tells the story of a young teacher (Moritz) who thinks he had met the love of his life in a Turkish girl and follows her to Istanbul/Turkey.
At the same time his real true love, Juli (Christiane Paul) travels with him, saves him and silently tries to win his heart over.In the end everything finds it's solution and climax beneath the Posporus bridge in Istanbul - the meeting point.The movie is well paced, doesn't have big special effects, but tells a wonderful story.
Daniel & Juli travel to Istanbul to meet their "Sun" meeting & losing each other along the way.
I personally love most of the movies Moritz Bleibtreu movies but Juli played by Christiane Paul totally sets the mysterious free spirited feeling throughout the movie.
Faith Akin is one of the best and brightest directorial voices working in Europe today, and while this early film isn't quite as strong as his more recent masterpieces, it's still a sweet, funny and worthwhile love story.
On the surface it's a very familiar romantic comedy plot – the misadventures of guy searching for girl he thinks he loves, while missing the fact that the perfect girl is right beside him.
Controversial German-Turkish filmmaker Faith Akin followed the critical success of his debut feature "Short Sharp Shock" and cemented his popular appeal with this cute rom-com that takes its protagonists from downtown Hamburg to the banks of the Bosporus in Istanbul that proved a successful sophomore feature.Prolific German actor Moritz Bleibtreu makes a likable lead and generates great chemistry with the über-cute Christiane Paul as his sometime love interest whilst excellent support comes from the charming Mehmet Kurtulus at the head of a quirky supporting cast that includes the ephemeral İdil Üner, the insane Branka Katić and a brief appearance from Akin himself.The accomplished filmmaker employs all the standard clichés in this run-of-the-mill road movie that is lifted to a whole new level by a diverse and talented cast and crew who put there passion for film-making onto the screen in a way that has long since deserted the Hollywood factory.Hey, we got a long way to go, man..
Also, it seemed relatively easy to determine WHO the main character would fall in love with in the end of the film after only shortly after the movie began.
The acting and pacing were excellent and although you had a strong idea where the movie would end, the actually journey there took a lot of surprising twists and turns.
A wonderfully fresh and fun film which is sometimes sassy and sometimes capricious, this warmly romantic road trip pic will keep you guessing from moment to moment as the protags take a journey through Europe and the process of falling in love.
Director Faith Akin is ahead of his time in his 2000 film Im Juli in that he successfully portrays the ideals of a cosmopolitan Europe before the European Union was in existence.
His dramatic film captures the essence of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism and raises questions of Heimat and belongingness through the love story of straightedge Daniel and free-spirited Juli.
Daniel and Juli's decision to stay in Turkey at the end of the film raises the idea of Heimat fluidity and whether a Heimat can change, a question a transnational director such as Akin has most likely faced himself.The fact that Im Juli was released before the installment of the European Union and Euro is not one to be taken lightly.
We also see that our main character is able to be changed, something unique to epic theatre – Daniel starts the movie as a rigid and rather boring man, yet at the end we see that he has become both adventurous and willing to gather new experiences, almost becoming, in many respects, similar to Juli.
Im Juli,as a Faith Akin production,it must be seen by the people who question that "how to find right person".This film shows us that a girl or boy who we never think to date could be most special person in the world.In the other words,in contrast to Daniel looking for love in far away,Romeo or Juliet may be close as a car seat.Daniel goes thousands of kilometers for the sake of love that he believe her as right person.The ring that Juli sold to Daniel is the sign of Juli's hope for love to him.But this expectation disappears in front of the bar that Juli hope to see Daniel there.Certainly She sees him there but with a girl who let the story starts.The facts that based on characters Melek,Daniel,Juli and İsa are significant.No comment more,just watch it without hesitating....
As Romantic comedies goes, "Im Juli" is one of the better I've ever seen, rating up there together with Serendipity, Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry met Sally.The major difference though, is that the story is happening  not i America, but from Berlin through Europe and finally under the Bosporus Bridge i Istanbul.All the happenings and situations tend to be almost hilariously funny.
Film is a German production but the director of the movie is a Turk.
At the beginning of the movie I don't like the films opening way but at the end I am happy about Film shooting way of Faith AKIN They gave their cultural knowledge to film.
young Turkish director  Fatih Akýn made a nice, entertaining and warm film about love and destiny...i liked the plot but more then that, i really loved the way Akýn expressed all kind of feelings in a very natural way..cinematography and nice editing impressed me..it is a nice road movie with a good plot, good directing and good acting..
In a few words Im Juli is a good road film I think..
A romantic story happened in July,about a girl named also July,seeking his love towards Daniel Bannier(Moritz Bleibtreu) who was a school teacher and get the feeling at the first sight.July sold her strange ring to Daniel in order praying for a love and blessing herself falling in love with Daniel.Each of us has the expectation on a romantic story could actually occurs to ourselves,like Daniel and July,even along with sharing the identical experience with the actors.Faith Akin cite a flashback as a beginning to take the audience into the movie,but filled with a little unbelievable coincidence.Daniel is a normal school teacher,but the things changed after met Melek(Idil Üner),who would come back to Turkey soon.Daniel was attracted by her and decided to go to Turkey to meet her again with a strong emotion begun with the destination from Hamburg to Istanbul.July love Daniel very much that makes the reason for becoming his travel accompanier.Faith Akin reasonably arranged the long story between Daniel and July through the whole episode.We can easily get the conclusion of the Romance pix,both actor being a couple in the end,but the point of this kind of movie is the process,Faith Akin delivers his story by making an unbelievable trip across several borders that helps to pave the way for the couples,that's an another excellent and novel tactic used in the romance movie.I generally accept it.Rating(7/10).
This Film is the evidence that a Road Movie in Europe can be as exciting as in US.
It's in German with subtitles (if your lucky)..although reading the dialogue can be a chore and distracting....for a good movie you do get into the swing of things and soon enough you begin to appreciate the original language as tone, inflections, whispering is conveyed as it was meant to.Moritz Bleibtreu is "Daniel Bannier" who is a young, sensitive, kind teacher in training in Hamburg, Germany.
But, I don't think there was enough romance in the film either.There are many road movies where two people fall in love, including American films like "The Sure Thing," which is how it should be done.
Maybe, this is a culture thing, though again, I saw various European films, and liked them.This simply isn't that good.
Moritz Bleibtreu (of 'Lola Rennt') is the boy-next-door; Christiane Paul is the smart July who's in love with him and, quite unknowingly, makes him do a cross-country through eastern Europe; Mehmet Kurtulus as Isa, the mysterious stranger, has the most imposing presence of all; and there's also Birol Ünel (Cahit of 'Gegen Die Wand') as an eccentric character in an underground restaurant where our hero nearly succumbs to the charms of the sexy Luna (played by Branka Katic).Overall, IM JULI is a great film.
Fate lands Daniel, in a borrowed car, at her feet, and the trek to Istanbul has begun, as Juli sees this as a chance to get Daniel to fall in love with her.
Although Juli learned his real intension, she still would like to accompany him to Istanbul because she did not want to give up.What happened on the journey was very interesting.
If you are careful, you will not let your true love slip away.An enchanting romantic movie.
Solid German road movie, good love story.
"Im Juli." (don't forget the full stop) is an early Faith Akin film starring two young German actors Moritz Bleibtreu and Christiane Paul, both still under 30 years old.
Bleibtreu won the German Film Award for his work here and in "Das Experiment".
On a side-note, somehow I always felt that Juli would not be attracted to a nice looking guy like Bleibtreu's character.
Thats why you can be surprised all the time.If you want to have a sweet trip from Hamburg to Istanbul, give this movie a try!.
Very funny and romantic road movie.
please watch this very funny and romantic German-Turkish road movie.
It will be good after watch unnatural Hollywood movies with similar scripts .Moritz Bleibtreu ...
Juli ( I loved her after I watched movie.