Intense German Films

During Das Leben der Anderen we, through the eyes of Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), who is investigating them on behalf of the East German state, gradually become absorbed in the lives of Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) and Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). So much so, that he begins to question to authoritarian rules he has spent his life enforcing. The ensemble cast is stunning, the script well written, the characters intriguing, the story fascinating and the final sequence is utterly heart-breaking, only to glue the shattered pieces back together.

An unforgettable film, based loosely around the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971, 12 volunteers are given roles as either prison guards, or prisoners. Das Experiment quickly spirals out of control as undercover reporter (Moritz Bleibtreu) stirs up trouble with disastrous consequences. Both Bleibtreu and Christian Berkel are excellent throughout, realistically portraying men facing stark truths about what we are all capable of. With challenging, and sometimes chilling questions about human nature raised, it’s a film that makes us think.

Der Untergang is the tale of the Nazi’s last days and their ultimate fall from power. Bruno Ganz is outstanding as Hitler, a portrayal for which he won a plethora of awards, but the stand out moment goes to Corinna Harfouch as Magda Goebbels, who we see murder her own children, in a thoroughly nasty, but utterly compelling scene. However the film excels, not because the Nazis are clearly evil, which they are, but because it avoids painting them as having one-dimensional motives or being caricature villains.

It’s a school project gone horribly wrong. What Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) begins as a harmless investigation into life under a dictator, ends with a his out-of-control pupils forming a social group committing increasingly aggressive acts, particularly former outcast Tim Stoltefuss (Frederick Lau.) The striking aspect of Die Welle is the incremental build of a fairly realistic pattern of events, but which culminate in such a tragic conclusion. The German Film Award for Best Supporting Actor (Lau) and European Film Award for Best Actor (Vogel) were both well deserved.

Lore. She’s an indoctrinated member of the Hitler Youth, but at the close of WWII, with her parents imprisoned, and the foundations of all her beliefs crumbling, she must carry her starving siblings across Germany to safety and accept the help of Jew she cannot quite bring herself to trust. The film is both moving and harrowing as Lore, excellent acted by Saskia Rosendahl, grows into a woman who feels betrayed by the adults who taught her what the world was ‘really’ like.

Das Letzte Schweigen is a “who-dunnit” without the “who-dunnit” element. We watch police attempt to track down the perpetrator of a crime with stark parallels to one committed more than 20 years prior, but the audience knows who the culprit is. This does not, however, detract from the amount of interest that can be found in the film, it still keeps the audience hooked with unique themes of motive behind the crimes, and it even manages to draw some sympathy or perhaps empathy for the criminal.