Im Juli

I watched "Im Juli," a film directed by Fatih Akin with Christiane Paul and Moritz Bleibtreu. I love this movie. Moritz Bleibtreu plays a student teacher, and Christiane Paul plays a young woman who has a stand in an outdoor flea market. She sees Daniel Bannier, the character played by Moritz Bleibtreu, and she has a crush on him. (Her name is Juli, which is also the month July in German. It doesn't work quite as well in English, because the name of the month is not pronounced the same as the name for a person. Fortunately the movie is in German.) She is too shy to speak to him at first, but a friend gets her to speak to him as he goes by. Daniel is a bit nerdy and awkward at the beginning of the film, but he opens up during the story. Hopefully he did not lose all of his nerdiness. Anyway, she sells him a ring that she says has special properties. She also gives him a flyer to an outside party with live music. She hopes to meet him there, but first he meets a woman from Turkey. Initially he is planning on staying in Hamburg instead of  going anywhere during his vacation, but after meeting her he decides to try to meet her in Istanbul. That is where she is going. Along the way he keeps meeting Juli. Along the way he has many misadventures. He loses his glasses, his passport and wallet are stolen and he and Juli have misadventures together. The movie is full of coincidences, but they do happen in real life. (I have some to write about later.) Both of the main characters take chances, and eventually these chances pay off. Sometimes we have a choice of taking chances or stagnating. I love the ending. The movie also has a lot of great music along the way.