My Favorite Foreign Movie

Im JULI

(English: In July) is a 2000 German road movie directed by Fatih Akın and starring Moritz Bleibtreu and Christiane Paul. The film takes place in July, 1999, and features a solar eclipse, which actually took place on 11 August 1999.

Plot

At the beginning of his summer holiday, a somewhat naïve trainee teacher Daniel (Moritz Bleibtreu) buys a ring from a stall run by Juli (Christiane Paul). The ring bears a Mayan sun symbol, which, according to Juli, has the power to lead him to the woman of his dreams, whom he will recognise by a similar sun symbol. As Juli has the ring's counterpart, and as she has fallen in love with him, she invites Daniel to a party that evening, in the hope that they will meet.

Curious, Daniel goes to the party and meets Melek (İdil Üner), who is wearing a T-shirt imprinted with a sun symbol. Convinced that she is the woman of his dreams, Daniel talks to her. Melek is only passing through and looking for a place to spend the night. After spending some time together seeing the sights of Hamburg, Daniel invites her to spend the night in his apartment.

Daniel and Melek left the party just as Juli arrived. She saw them leave together. In her disappointment, she decides to leave town. Next day she goes to the Autobahn to hitch a ride, with no predetermined destination.

As fate would have it, Daniel is the first car to stop, on his way back from the airport, where he had dropped Melek off. He has decided to drive to Istanbul in search of Melek, who, he knows, will be under the bridge over the Bosporus a few days later. Juli convinces Daniel to take her with him in his neighbour's rusty old car. And so begins a long and exciting trip across Eastern Europe.

Cast

* Moritz Bleibtreu: Daniel Bannier
* Christiane Paul: Juli
* İdil Üner: Melek
* Mehmet Kurtuluş: İsa
* Jochen Nickel: Leo
* Branka Katić: Luna
* Birol Ünel: Club Doyen
* Sandra Borgmann: Marion
* Ernest Hausmann: Kodjo, Daniel's neighbour
* Gábor Salinger: Man in Hungarian market
* Cem Akın: Turkish border guard
* Fatih Akın: Romanian border guard
* Sándor Badár: Alin
* Dylan Gray: Hungarian border guard

Crew

* Direction: Fatih Akın
* Script: Fatih Akın