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The Lives of Others
Von Donnersmarck’s powerful, beautifully crafted film captures life in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, when secret police or Stasi agents scrutinised the population for signs of dissent or divergence from toeing the line of the totalitarian regime. The story tells of three main characters a successful writer (Koch) suspected of subversion,…
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Waltz With Bashir
This animated film depicts director Ari Folman’s search for lost memories of his experience as an Israeli soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War. Framed as an exercise in therapy, it consists of a series of interviews with his former comrades. As more memories come to the surface, Ari realises that his unit played a role…
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The White Ribbon
Unsettling incidents take place in a small village in north Germany before World War I. The events are characterised by increasing violence and the community wonders about the identity of the perpetrators and their motivation. The village is no different from other communities in the rigid society of the period, nor is its puritanical approach…
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Barbara
This tense story of love and subterfuge set in the world of The Lives of Others was a huge success in Germany and was selected as the German entry to the Oscars. Barbara is working at a prestigious university hospital in 1980 East Berlin, hoping to join her boyfriend in West Germany. Having applied for…
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Victoria
Shot in a snigle, continuous tahe, Victoria tells the tale of a Spanish woman, new to the city of Berlin, who meets two men at a club and gets mixed up in a bank robbery. There are echoes of the French New Wave in the premise, but the style of the film is much more…
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Son of Saul
At several camps the Nazis established units of Jewish male prisoners (sonderkommandos) picked for their youth and relative health. Those at Auschwitz-Birkenau lived in better physical conditions than other inmates and were divided into different groups, each with specialised functions including greeting new arrivals to the camp; sorting their suitcases and packages for shipping to…
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Frantz
A change of tone again from prolific director Ozon, (Potiche, 8 Women, Swimming Pool) this time a romantic mystery with a plot that twists and turns like a slinky. French veteran, Adrien, journeys to a small German village a year after the end of World War I, to visit the grave of his friend Frantz…
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In the Fade
Akin brings us an important film giving focus to the impact of xenophobia rather than the much-charted rise of extremist views in western countries, in this case Germany. In the Fade has three distinct parts, first, a terrorist attack and the effect on a woman, Katja (Kruger); the second charts the woman’s pursuit of justice…
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Transit
Transit is based on a 1944 novel by German-Jewish writer Anna Seghers, who draws on her own experience as a refugee. Petzold situates the drama in an historically indeterminate moment, superimposing past and present. There are no period trappings; the opening sirens could be sounding today, and the soldiers storming Paris look like contemporary French…
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I’m Your Man
“A science-fiction with soul and a romance written for adults. Just like its mechanical hero, this tender film is attractive, smart and cunningly designed to win your heart.” Pamela Hutchinson, Empire
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