In the rubble of Berlin in April, 1945, there are women, children and old men clustered together in a bomb shelter as Red Army soldiers and tanks mop up resistance street by street. From a woman's diary anonymously published nine years after the events, come lucid and raw details of survival amid extreme devastation, pervasive sexual violence, and soldiers bent upon revenge for the evils they suffered. "If the Russians do just a fraction of what we did to them in the past four years," writes a woman in Berlin "every German will be dead." There are repeated rapes, day and night. "Every feeling is dead," she writes. Many people commit suicide. Others vow to survive whatever way they can; encouraging each other, finding protectors and treasuring the light where it can be found.
Not only does A Woman in Berlin provide insight into the brutality of war from a woman's perspective who is at the epicenter of it, the film is alluring from all the other aspects that go into filmmaking Nina Hoss, who plays the main character, is fantastic and her award winning performance here provides a well deserved jolt to her career. It is profoundly eye-opening and mind bending to try to comprehend this aspect of war. The subject is left out of textbooks, it is taboo to bring it up, and women are shunned - as the author of this diary was - just for bringing it up. Fortunately there are good people in unexpected places, as the main character finds, who are kind hearted. One of my favorite films.
Not only does A Woman in Berlin provide insight into the brutality of war from a woman's perspective who is at the epicenter of it, the film is alluring from all the other aspects that go into filmmaking Nina Hoss, who plays the main character, is fantastic and her award winning performance here provides a well deserved jolt to her career. It is profoundly eye-opening and mind bending to try to comprehend this aspect of war. The subject is left out of textbooks, it is taboo to bring it up, and women are shunned - as the author of this diary was - just for bringing it up. Fortunately there are good people in unexpected places, as the main character finds, who are kind hearted. One of my favorite films.