La promessa

THE PROMISE (Das Versprechen) by Margarethe von Trotta is must viewing. There is no easier and more entertaining manner to understand recent German, and Central European, history than by watching this film. It plays very well on video, and the interesting locales and action will excite those who dislike subtitles. THE PROMISE is an epic drama focusing on divisions: in love, in a nation, in its capital city, in its politics, and in love. Indeed a love story is the vehicle used for this extraordinary epic, recounting the three decades between the Berlin Wall's first barbed wire, and its fall. Some critics, forgetting what a historical epic requires, dismiss the film as cliche-ridden. Well, of course, "War and Peace", "Gone with the Wind", "Dr. Zhivago", were successful due to the use of composite characters or cliches. These are necessary to explain history in a medium like the cinema. Ms. von Trotta is to be congratulated not only for this and other great political films (i.e."Rosa Luxemburg") but for being one of the only German filmmakers to tackle the controversial topic of German reunification. A declared socialist from Western Germany, Ms von Trotta lends the film a point of view that is as unbiased as I can imagine. Don't miss it. A lot of people did because of the film's timing. The last thing I guess most Germans wanted to see at the movies in 1994 was a reminder of the results of reunification. For this reason, this great film was unfairly denied its place in European Film History.

I first saw this in a German language class, and even though I'm no where near fluent, I still find this to be more enjoyable and moving than many English movies. Following the lives of two main characters, the film chronicles the period just after the wall's construction to the fall in 1989. Though all protagonist characters are of course impacted negatively by the wall, the politics of a few characters are very complex and surprising. This movie will undoubtedly make you think. Aside from politics, the main plot is a love story, and it is very powerful. The characters are imperfect, real and delightful. All in all it is evocative, emotional, and never trite. Great film.

When the Berlin wall is built to split up the city, a group of youths try to escape from the East to the West. Among them are Sophie (Meret Becker) and Konrad (Anian Zollner), but only the former makes it to the west. Konrad stays in the East, becoming a successful astronomer. Over the following decades, the lovers keep on living their lives with new families, occasionally meeting each other when circumstances are benign. Older versions of Sophie and Konrad are played by Corinna Harfouch and August Zirner.

Through the melodramatic romance of Sophie and Konrad, the film examines the effects of the Wall on the Germans. Things are more complicated than "East is bad, West is good": there are movements to both directions, and people have many reasons to move, or to choose to stay. The film conveys the atmosphere of disunity and bureaucracy well through realistic visual style, but the love story is strong in its own right too.

As the film covers 30 years, the key emotional points of such a story are incredibly accurate. The film's tone is brilliantly handled, the delicate weakening of the spirit, the darkening of the world, the East buildings subtly not changing but getting older while the West becomes subtly more modern. Unless one lived through much of the story, much may be missed. But every detail is important. Credit to the director, the writer and the actors for incredible performances: the repressed anger, the repressed joy, the repressed hope... everything just below the surface. Forever, the question, who could have done what differently? There was never an answer then, and there is no answer now.

Portraying several friends separated by the Berlin Wall, "Das Versprechen" - called "The Promise" in English - hits you right where it hurts. I thought that it was very interesting how the movie picks up about every ten years, showing the historical context each time (specifically the sign saying "Victory to the Vietnamese Revolution" in 1968, during Prague Spring). To my generation, the Berlin Wall remains part of history (I was only five when it fell), so we have to rely on movies like this to understand the whole thing. All in all, director Margarethe von Trotta did a very good job here, as did the whole cast. Definitely worth seeing.