Róza

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.

"War is like a fire," it is said in The Art of War "if you do not put it out, it will burn itself out." The fire of World War II smoldered in Masuria, in the northeast corner of Poland, long after the war ceased. Life was especially hard for innocents like Rose, a German speaker whose soldier husband died in battle. Victorious Russians and Poles treated such women as conquered enemies. Alone on a potato farm, Rose is on the edge of death when Tadeusz encounters her. Tadeusz, who deserted from the Polish Home Army when his wife was brutally murdered, is in no mood to see another woman suffer like this. He stays to protect Rose as best he can, but also to tend to his own broken heart. Rose and Tadeusz swim in a pristine lake in the forest, relive happy moments from the past, plant potatoes and attempt to mold a bright future from the ashes, yet the flames of war, violence and abuse are not so easily snuffed out.

Rose is a determined character who refuses to give up despite extreme hardship and abuse. She radiates hope amid despair. So does Tadeusz. Together they embody goodness and sparks of renewal in the world even at its bleakest moments. The film tugs at your emotions. Dark and light moods are heightened as film images shift between black and white and color. It is very disturbing yet illuminating to better understand the plight of Masurians, caught between warring powers. Some of my ancestors, German speakers and Russian citizens in what is now Poland, came from the area. The acting is splendid. World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival.

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.

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.