Nelly & Nadine - Eine wahrhaft unglaubliche Liebesgeschichte

Nelly & Nadine (2022) is a documentary film co-written and directed by Magnus Gertten. After the German defeat, a boatload of women who had survived the concentration camps were brought to Sweden. Someone filmed the event, and director Gertten has previously identified two people in the film and made movies about them. This is the third movie, and it involves two women--Nelly Mousset Vos and Nadine Hwang.

The two women met and fell in love in Ravensbrück concentration camp. They were separated, but both survived. Years later, Nelly's granddaughter contacted director Gertten, who made this meticulous documentary about a lesbian couple who traveled all over the world in order to be together.

Nelly & Nadine has a good IMDb rating of 7.3. I thought it was an outstanding movie, and rated it 10. We saw this film as part of Rochester's great ImageOut, the LGBTQ Film Festival.

I watched it and it left me with a lot of questions. To many...

It felt they didn't share all what was inside grandma's box... Instead we get to see this granddaugter who wasn't even curious enough to look inside this box for more then 20 years; when she got the box from her mother. This story is about two brave women and we start with seeing the opposite, the scared granddaughter.

I missed the simple details about the grandmother. Who was this woman before the Nelly & Nadine Story started? Where was Nadine burried?

Instead we get to see the same 8mm homemovies over and over again and this creates this image of two older women in your head. And when seeing that one photo again, the one with a younger Nadine wearing thick glasses, or the video of Nadine arriving in Sweden you get confused.

It lacks certain details... crucial details that can be found with a little research.

At the end of World War II, a boatload of women survivors of Nazi concentration camps debarked in Malmo, Sweden, to begin new lives. Someone filmed this, and this is director Magnus Gerten third movie tracking down the stories of the women shown in that bit of film.

This one is an amazing and touching transcontinental Lesbian love story, spanning prewar literary salons, World War II resistance, survival in the concentration camps, separation, reunification, and a new life in South America.

Note to screenwriters: this would make a hell of a good fiction film, when you aren't constrained by what pictures happened to survive....

As "Nelly & Nadine" (2022 release from Sweden; 92 min.) opens, it is "April 28, 1945" and a large contingent of women reach Malmo, Sweden, including Nadine Wang. The event was recorded by multiple sources, and we get some amazing footage. The voice-over wonders what Nadine was thinking about "and I found the answer in northern France". We are introduced to Sylvie, the granddaughter of Nelly, and keeper of tons of archive materials which she has never reviewed closely... until now. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from Swedish producer-director magnus Gertten ("Every Face Has a Name"). Here he carefully reconstructs the absolutely remarkable story of two women who meet in a concentration camp, get split up, and what came thereafter. The movie uses Sylvie's reading of numerous documents and watching ample 8mm footage to built the story, layer upon layer. The movie's pace is deliberately quite slow, so that we can register what we are hearing and watching. There is a fantastic classical score to accentuate it all.

"Nelly & Nadine" was released in late 2022, presumably so as to qualify for the Oscar nominations, which it failed to garner. Don't let that fool you. This documentary id currently rated 94% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason. I stumbled onto this film last night on Amazon Prime. So glad I found this. Not only is the story remarkable, but it contains a ton of footage that has high historical value as well. If you are in the mood for a moving love story of a different kind, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I was already interested when I first heard about this documentary feature, but as someone who primarily watched fiction and especielly so on the theater, I gave it a pass for the time being.

When I heard it was nominated for the Swedish equailent of the Oscar, 'Guldbagge', my interest peaked once more, and I was able to catch it on TV.

For what it is, and as simply told it is, it's a very beautiful documentary. It's shot and edited very well and tells a very emotional and incredible love story, that was very interesting to be sure.

Overall, I would recommend it if you're looking for an interesting documentary. In that area, it's very incredible indeed!