Berlino estate '42

The film serves its purpose in giving a brutally unflinching glimpse into the grotesque, uncompromising Nazi regime at the time - while also counterbalancing the story with hopeful, youthful optimism and deep love between the two main characters, Hilde and Jakob. Their relationship captures the essence of resilience amidst despair, making each scene compelling and emotionally resonant.

Beautifully acted, written, and directed, this is one of those films that will stick with you for a while whether you like it or not. The cinematography is breathtaking, capturing the raw and stark landscapes that mirror the emotional turmoil and the indomitable spirit of the characters. With its haunting musical score and meticulously crafted dialogue, this masterpiece delves deep into the human spirit's ability to endure and love even in the harshest conditions. Riveting and thought-provoking, it challenges viewers to reflect on the past and consider the complexities of history.

Feel free to tweak it further to match your voice and perspective!

While at it's core another traditional basic biographical structure, director Andreas Dresen does a solid work on presenting the relationship and history of the two character of Hilde and Hans Coppi with two strong lead performances from the cast and including some solid direction choices.

Stories about anti-Nazi and the war period has been done many times and Dresen offers at times some good direction and atmosphere approaches. Regarding it's writing being predictable and nothing too special when it comes to context, history and development, especially character development, the strong performances, solid camerawork and certain dialogue moments remain ambitious.

The film tells a story of a group of young, reasonably well off and naive people, who fought the NAZI by trying to help USSR. However, as said by Hilde's son Hans, a German historian, after the war, many Nazi officers who participated in the torture and killing of those fighters were never prosecuted but joined the West German military, while his parents and other continued to be treated as traitors till 2008. That makes you wonder whether they were heroes fighting for freedom, or victims in the geopolitical conflicts played by the people in power.

In the film, all of the people in Nazi machines, the secret police , the prison guards, the hospital staff, the judges, were humane, kind and sympathetic. I am not sure how well this reflects the historical truth. Prison systems across the world were cruel in those days. Was Hilde just lucky to be treated humanely, or was it the filmmaker's desire of not hurting this beautiful soul, on the big screen?

Looking at the conflicts today that are killing so many people in the name of glorious goals, I wonder whether humans are really capable of learning. This film tells such a story that makes some of us think and see the wars differently.

Not watching this! I actually recommend watching this, so no pun intended as always. We can only imagine how it must have been - although you do have countries where .... well there is one form of dictatorship or another ... if you feel I attacked the country you are living in - well that is on you. As in don't blame me for what you perceive to be your truth or what you feel to be true - my words are kept to a minimum. Just saying.

And I am not tip toeing around anything for any specific reason - as in I don't expect to get the treatment our main character is getting here. I'd hope that does not happen - to anybody ... but again we have seen things happening lately .. so there is a crazy world out there.

Which makes this an important watch I assume ... and powerful ... even if not easy to watch! What would you do? Not easy to answer.

I found this a really riving watch. I have a history with radical movements, and I found a lot of similarities in terms of the way the group dynamics played out with the resistance members. What was really surprising is the tactful way that the 'ordinary life' of many of the average or upper-middle class Germans faced, with the exception of the war hanging over everybody's head.

The portrayal of some of the more sympathetic members of the German state apparatus was really well done as well. They respected a number of her wishes (despite initially bleating out that things were just 'the rules'), and responded well to the perfectly reasonable requests of the characters.

The ending was jarring in a good way, and left me sat in my seat in the cinema even after the credits had finished. Very moving and inspiring, despite being considered 'not a date night film' by the people sat behind me.