Wie Feuer und Flamme

Certain things are tough to imagine, if you haven't lived through them yourself. On the other hand movies are good into putting us into situations where we can feel empathy or go on a journey we never would have experienced otherwise.

That being said, even knowing about the wall and what it must have done to the people over there ... it is tough to get the full grasp of things. Not being able to get information, being cut off. And having to rely on others to smuggle things in for your.

Add to that a love story and it all starts to make way more sense. Hopfully for everyone involved. Stories like these are important so we do not forget what happened and what can happen, if we are not aware and let others dictate what we do and don't do. Coherent story and suspensful from start to finish.

I first saw this more than 20 years ago in a sneak preview. Otherwise I would have missed it. Even back then I wasn't a teenager anymore. And I never liked love stories anyway, not on screen and not in print. Especially not teenage love stories. But this was enchanting. The historical background (not so far back in 2001), the music, the sometimes dreamlike scenes - for me it was one of the most beautiful experiences in a cinema ever. Since then I have not met many people who have seen this movie, and some of them didn't like it. So? In my opinion one of the best German movies after WW 2. Here you have it.

"wie feuer und flamme" is definitely a must-see film. the look and feel of the setting was very real, and the film's visual style enhanced the emotions evoked by the film's content. i liked that i was able to identify with the characters and their situations, yet still get swept away in the more romanticized dalliances. the director has an effective style that is easy to follow, and through skillful direction of her actors she tells a story that will bring a lump to your throat, a smile to your lips, and tears to your eyes. and on top of all that, you get to hear great music the whole way through. i loved this film.

The story is set in the Berlin of 1982 and 1990. A girl from west-Berlin meets an east-german punk during a funeral-visit. They fall in Love and of course it becomes complicated, not only because such relationships were complicated in general due to the harsh visiting regulations, but because the punk-band under fire from the state security. The punk goes to prison in the end and the girl leaves for the u.s. ... In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin wall, she returns to find her "captain".

The movie could have been really good - atmosphere and detail of the Berlin of the early 80s are well matched. The story is a bit of-the-shelf, but still entertaining. Alas, the performance of the characters is not too well - at no moment you believe "Nele" to be a girl risking her life by sneaking into the east to help "captain", and the "punk band" rather makes the impression of an acting class... which is were probably most actors in the movie come from.

The movie was made with considerable support from German national television, and as such it is still of high quality - for television standards. Anyway, it is not a waste of time and from the reactions of the 20ish audience in the sneak preview, contains a lot of details about how east Germany worked that these kids nowadays neither know nor believe ...

This movie takes us on a journey through East/West German history while it tells the story of a West German girl and an East German boy (both while there is still a wall through Berlin).

Very realistic picture of those times and a very involving story...