Der Überläufer

This story is sad and very good! I recommend people to see this one.

I love movies set in WW2 but this was really incredibly bad. The main actor has the charisma of a potato bag, and he doesn't get across the difficult inner conflict and emotions of the situation at all. And the love story! God. Never have I seen a less believable love story in all my life. Though the female lead is still the only character with a bit of interest, all the others are flat and cartoonish. Not to be recommended unless you just want to spend a few hours in early 20st century Europe, cause the costumes and sets are nice to look at nonetheless.

This is partially a story about the meaninglessness of war, and partially a story about star-crossed lovers, but the main theme recurring through both deals with the protagonist's inner conflicts as he winds up changing allegiances multiple times throughout, sometimes through choice, sometimes necessity.

Now, it really requires a lot of suspension of disbelief in the beginning of the story to buy that a German soldier and a woman in the resistance would be able to both sneak off from their duties and none of their fellow soldiers on either side noticing, but if you can look past this, this is a well-produced and well acted drama that manages well to depict the cruelty of war and tough choices without feeling gratuitous or cliched, though the ending is rather ambiguous and will leave you thinking.

War films and series often go along with simple solutions and plots and most notably, they keep repeating same stories.

Some might say, that two episodes were too few for dealing the story and some things should have had more space. It is partly true, but it is also interesting to see something, where not everything is made finished for the viewer. Situations in real life aren't so why make it like that always in movies? Haven't read the book, but I would guess that the plot in series follows it well.

This film is not following the book, it's story and feelings. Read the novel instead. Frippe