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This artful and poignant film is a perfect balance between the sadness of how impotent adults are when a child is ill and the laughter that leavens the sadness. Music of Ghuzu guitar group propels the actions forward. Sensitive camera work doesn't allow us to be more than very limited voyeurs into the workings of a SoHo sex club where our protagonist grandmother, played to perfection by Marianne Faithful, in a role that shows us how multi talented this former rock chick of 1970's fame as the muse for Mick Jagger is as a mature woman. She does what she is able to do for not only her sick grandson, but for her son who is unable to "fix" what a "good father" should be able to. Her moral dilemma is resolved in how she limits and defines just what a "good mother" should do for her children to protect them from life's foibles and cruelties. The Desert Film Society of Palm Springs, CA screened this film on Sat. Dec. 15, 2007 for our 300+ members who thought it one of the best films we have shown this year, along with The Man in the Chair.

This film exhibits artful cinematic techniques wherein instead of landscape capturing the attention of the camera it is small details in how someone appears, how the woman may be wearing a cocktail hat and wrapped in a sheet. How the husband may be wearing a hat and socks and shoes and his underwear and both seem so completely at ease and comfortable. How provocative the woman is posed is another feature of the tableau that the director chooses to let us know she is a free spirit sexually and aims to get the pleasure she seeks without flirting directly or with any particular sensitivity to what the man may be feeling. The relationship between the wife and husband is unique. It is an open one wherein she holds nothing back, feels no particular shame for how she has behaved and wants to share these facts with him because her primary focus always is on the fact of their marriage. Nothing and no one can come between the two of them. Only the chances of fate can intervene---his imprisonment during the war and what follows after his return at long last. A very intriguing film which is totally absorbing.

Beautfully filmed and poignantly acted, this fine film takes it time to tell the story of so many immigrants who faced discrimination and were alienated from the new society they were coming to. We are drawn to the strength of the love that develops between Olaf and Inge and indeed the children they were to have came from a relationship of love and admiration between two remarkable people. Wonderful musical score and cinematography. The use of shadows and alternative horizon lines add to the drama. The artistic use of, at different times, the staircase became part of the love/sexual drama between the couple. First he was absolutely unwelcome because of custom and not necessarily how she felt. Then eventually, their life together caused her to see and feel how welcome he was regardless of the tradition of the local society and the church. Raymond and Carolyn Velez