C. G. Jung coined the term "synchronicity" referring to a special confluence of events set in motion by chance. All of us have experienced these marvels that challenge us to move beyond our cause-and-effect thinking. As novelist Milan Kundera wrote in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, "It is wrong, then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences . . . but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he therefore deprives his life of a dimension of beauty."
The beauty of coincidence is at the heart of In July, a high-flying and very entertaining German road movie written and directed by German-born Turk Fatih Akin. Daniel (Moritz Bleibtreu) is a student teacher of physics in Hamburg, Germany, who is a very lonely fellow. On the way home one night, he meets Juli (Christiane Paul), who forces him to purchase a lucky ring. She tells him that he'll meet the woman of his dreams soon. When a friend asks her what she thinks is so special about Daniel, she responds: "He has something deep inside him wanting to get out." When she goes to meet him at a music concert, imagine her surprise to see him leaving with a beautiful stranger. This woman (Idil Uner) later tells Daniel that her name means "angel." He believes her, especially after they spend an enchanting evening together.
After she leaves for Istanbul, where she is set to meet someone under a bridge on the Bosporus, Daniel vows to use his vacation to find her. Driving out of Hamburg for this totally unplanned adventure, he picks up a female hitchhiker who turns out to be Juli. She believes in happy coincidences and is delighted to be of assistance to Daniel.
As they travel through five countries, various eccentrics throw roadblocks in their blooming relationship: a truck driver (Jochen Nickel) with a robust libido, a devious lady (Branka Katic) in a van, a greedy Romanian border guard (Fatih Akin), and a Turk (Mehmet Kurtulus) who is on a mission of mercy. Daniel remains open to love on the long journey across Europe. And Juli patiently tutors the man she desires in the joys of going with the flow. In July is a deliriously delightful road movie.
