Róza

more terrible than many battle story. because it represents only a honest testimony about the way to see the other. because it is one of the so many hate story who defines each period. because it is only a story about a woman and a man and the end of a war in a region who has its rules and fears and frustrations and definition of justice. and this does Rose different. because it is not exactly a case or slice of past or example of vulnerability of a single woman. but picture of a profound side of present. and this is its basic virtue - to be a story about people. not about heroic acts, not about the manner to survive. only one of the not important stories who preserve the roots of the lines from the history books.

Gritty, hard to watch, tense, gloomy, realistic, definitely not for all audiences. Sensitive film with unbearable torture scenes and a deep depiction of post WW2 Poland. Don't expect to laugh much, because it is shocking, revolting. Beautiful, unforgettable, so shame it was not released in France.

Recommended to me by a Polish penpal to shed light on.the grim and fragmentary situation in Poland after WWII, particularly with regards to the Masurian minority group. It's a rather harsh film depicting the struggle.of a former soldier to find peace and solitude with a widow despite both of their profound traumas. It's a hard subject to wedge any sort of brevity into and the film amiably tries to balance the bleakness with some hope - the narrative lurches are a bit much and poor Rose feels a bit of a secondary character despite the name - but the human fallout of the Potsdam Agreement and the realities of life for the Polish people after the war is little known in the UK so I'm ultimately very glad I saw it.

cold, harsh, bitter. only testimony. reflection of a time. or only picture of an ordinary story. a woman. a man. end of a war. beginning of other. a farm. and mixture between fear, hope and drops of joy. more than a film, it is a travel in the heart of reality. emotions, tension, and gray nuances. nothing else. only a slice from East. and a different lesson of history. because all is testimony. with perfect instruments, with desire to not forgive, to present not exactly an individual tragedy but sufferance of a land who can be Masuria, Bukovina, Kosovo or Alsace.a woman, a man, a love story out of declaration and a war traces. like remember. like profound, silent cry. or only, like a testimony. from a past who is seed for future.

'Rόża', a big-budget Polish production, is set just after the Second World War, as the German community in Poland face reprisals from the Communists. The couple sitting next to me in the cinema were whispering to each other throughout, which was tiresome - almost as tiresome as the film's multiple rape scenes. Many German women did indeed suffer sexual violence at the hands of the Red Army, but I really don't think it was necessary to show it quite so often - even if most of the scenes were extremely quick and none of them were titillating. It spoiled what was otherwise a good human-interest drama. To show one such scene, to establish what the characters were suffering, would have been acceptable - to show multiple such scenes veered, albeit unintentionally, too far into voyeurism, IMHO.