De l'autre côté du mur

A woman escapes East Germany with her child.

Starring Jordis Triebel, Tristan Gobel and Alexander Scheer.

Written by Heide Schwochow (screenplay) and Julia Franck (Novel).

Directed by Christian Schwochow.

I seem to be on a bit of a run of late for watching foreign subtitled films.

This German movie is left of centre, quirky and quite well acted. It's also a good insight into how things were on either side of the Berlin wall post war. It just about kept my interest although it lacks a little excitement. There's not a lot of suspense and it didn't exactly have me on the edge of my seat.

It's interesting but easily forgettable. Not exactly a yawn fest but lacked any real entertainment value.

7/10

A good movie about an interesting aspect of German history. Did you know about the existence of West German refugee transit camps during the period of cold war, which had the assignment of receiving and processing East German immigrants? Well, I did not. Dated in the 1970's, the movie allows us to follow a young mother and her son into the camp of Marienfelde in West Berlin after she managed to cross the border by means of a West German pretend husband.

There however, her high hopes for a better future in the West are confronted with a system of bureaucracy and distrust, since according to secret service any immigrant could as well be an East German spy. Nelly is especially suspicious for having been a member of the East German Academy of Sciences and for the father of her boy being a Russian who disappeared mysteriously.

Altogether, it is a coherent story with a good mix of characters. We get to know short term acquaintances like a Russian speaking girl who makes friend with Nelly's little boy Alexej. When leaving the camp with her family she also disappears from the story. This gives a good example of typical transit camp life where people come and go all the time.

It is also the camera work, which supports the feeling to be effectively part of the camp life. It often does so by showing the protagonists behind some fuzzy object in the foreground. The good acting also must not be disregarded. Next to award winning leading actress Jördis Triebel I would like to mention the flawless performance of Alexander Scheer, who gives the mysterious character of a former East German dissident, who seems to be stuck in the camp forever.

Memorable also the scene, in which Nelly seduces the American secret service officer into sex with her. When finding out in bed that all the humiliating interrogations about her Russian ex-boyfriend being a spy are only based on speculation, she turns the balance of power upside down and drops the guy. Good girl.

Some user comments suggest that the story may not be completely correct from a historical point of view. Oh well, I prefer to see the movie as a general metaphor about the clash of hopes and reservations, that immigrants have to face in their new homelands. Despite its indicated happy end, the movie clearly suggests that the outcome of this conflict is rather open.

A document of a time passed by. And while I don't think this feels to dated (if you let yourself into the mood and time when the movie playing), you will like what you see. It's a story about people trying to survive, while being confronted by politics and paranoia. It isn't (or rather wasn't easy) to live like this. Even harder to survive when you try to stay in the middle.

While some might argue that this feels like a movie of the week type, I'd disagree. It might have a story line that is close to that, but the acting and the framing, lighting and everything else point out that this is more than that. If you like your drama to feel as real as possible (with touches of a thriller), here you go

In 1975 Nelly's husband left her for a business trip – he never came back from Russia. We pick up the story three years later when she and her young son Alexej are given permission by the DDR – German Democratic Republic - to emigrate to the West. Original title of this German film is 'Westen' and it is in both German and English with good sub titles).

Once she gets to the 'Promised Land' she discovers that things are not as rosy as she had been informed. This is her story. There is a lot more to it than above and it is timely for a release at the moment to show how attitudes were then to refuges and how, sadly, little has really changed.

The period detail is excellent; the acting is great with Jördis Triebel as Nelly doing a performance that will guarantee future work offers. The issues that are dealt with are done in a way to show the human cost of prejudicial and judgmental attitudes, but there is a lot of love here too. This is one of those films that when it is over it will leave you wanting more – an easy one to recommend.

A drama about a mother and son who manage to emigrate from East Germany to West Germany during the era of the Cold War. The transition is complicated by the ongoing requirements of the immigration centre in order to obtain West German citizenship. Further complications arise as her son's father, who they believed dead from an accident in the Soviet Union, is suspected by Western secret services of being alive and having been a Stasi agent. The mother moves inexorably towards paranoia as she becomes unsure of who she can actually trust.

The film captures the atmosphere of the period through incidents, detail and setting. However, at times the film appears a little too concerned with appealing to a potentially broad audience through intrigue, romance and melodrama; understandable but perhaps occasionally unfortunate.