German films Archives • Page 2 of 2 • The Boomtown Rap

Featuring: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Rainer Bock, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke
Director: Christian Petzold
Writer: Christian Petzold in collaboration with Harun Farocki

2012-13 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville 28 January–3 February, 8pm; Joondalup Pines 5–10 February, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: absorbing)

Story:
German Democratic Republic, 1980, Berlin Wall still firmly intact. As punishment for applying for an exit visa, doctor Barbara (Nina Hoss) has been transferred from a prestigious position in East Berlin to a small hospital in a provincial coastal town. She is under regular surveillance by the Stasi, whom she suspects of recruiting her genial boss, chief physician André (Ronald Zehrfeld), to spy on her. Through stealth and careful collusion, she manages to carry on an affair with her wealthy West German lover, Jörg (Mark Waschke), who arranges for her to escape by sea to Denmark. Her plans are complicated by the growing attraction between her and André, and her sense of professional and humanitarian responsibility as a doctor in an under-resourced community hospital in dire need of her medical expertise and experience.

Review:
This brilliantly crafted work takes a while to get going, but is never less than absorbing. That’s some feat, considering the slow pacing, the bleakness of the setting and the unendearing lead character, Barbara. Continue reading Barbara Movie Review →

Featuring: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai Malina, Ursina Lardi, Nele Trebs, Mika Seidel, André Frid, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Eva-Maria Hagen
Director: Cate Shortland
Writers: Cate Shortland, Robin Mukherjee (based on a story from The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert)
Website: www.transmissionfilms.com.au/index.php/lore/
Australian release date: Thursday, 20th September, 2012
Review 1: rolanstein
Review 2: Karen

Story:
Germany is on its knees at the end of WW11. The Allies have carved the country into three zones, occupied by the Americans, Russians and British. With her SS officer father fleeing the family and her Nazi mother (Ursina Lardi) turning herself in to the Americans, teenager Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) finds herself entrusted with the task of shepherding her younger siblings 900km through her devastated country to the sanctity of their grandmother’s rural home outside Hamburg. Filthy, starving, and confronted by a bewildering and terrifying set of consequences and truths at odds with everything she has been led to believe by her parents and the Nazi propaganda machine, Lore has no choice but to accept the help of a Jewish concentration camp survivor with a questionable agenda, Thomas (Kai Malina), who helps them to negotiate their way through an apocalyptic world of uncertainty, degradation and constant threat.

Review 1: (rolanstein)
Germany’s immediate-post-war history has been largely ignored by filmmakers, the brilliant Downfall being the only relatively recent exception that comes to mind. It struck me as I watched Lore that this period has been virtually overlooked by historians, also (who cares about the vanquished aggressors?). Certainly, none of the war history that made its way into my school education included anything on it. And despite living in Germany for almost a year in the 80s, during which never a day passed without my thinking of the war, I know nothing of this time.

Astute of Cate Shortland to recognise its dramatic potential in adapting Rachel Seiffert’s story to the screen. But how well does she realise that potential? Continue reading Lore Movie Review →

movie reviews + occasional other musings