Wolfgang's Staudte's The Murderers are Among Us is a brilliant and moving piece of filmmaking. It works on every level. It's a "micro" story, of two people damaged by the war, each with their own version of what we now call PTSD, and how they help each other to heal in fits and starts. The film is also a great "macro" story, of postwar Germany's messy and difficult life and of the guilt - collective and individual - of Germans for crimes committed during the war. These are reinforced by recurring religious images and the Christmas themes. And the film is beautiful, full of great shots, different camera angles, wonderful close-ups, and relentless reminders of the poverty and destruction left by the war.
The focus is not on the direct victim of the war, played by Hidegarde Knef, whose story is only hinted at. All eyes are on one of the war's accidental perpetrators and indirect victims, played by Wilhelm Borchert. Both Knef and Borchert are outstanding, as is Arno Paulsen, the source of Borchert's conflicted emotions and deep shame. Also, each of the finely drawn supporting characters serves as a symbol, and example, of some aspect of German society: the wise, diligent and gullible father who dies before ever hearing from his long-lost soldier-son; the busybody; the self-believing charlatan; the dying child and terrorized mother, the showgirls.
Apparently the film also worked on a personal level to to heal its director's psyche, for just as Borchert's surgeon participated in war crimes, so too did Staudte work on Nazi propaganda films during the 30s. This movie was apparently his way of coming to terms with his complicity.
The focus is not on the direct victim of the war, played by Hidegarde Knef, whose story is only hinted at. All eyes are on one of the war's accidental perpetrators and indirect victims, played by Wilhelm Borchert. Both Knef and Borchert are outstanding, as is Arno Paulsen, the source of Borchert's conflicted emotions and deep shame. Also, each of the finely drawn supporting characters serves as a symbol, and example, of some aspect of German society: the wise, diligent and gullible father who dies before ever hearing from his long-lost soldier-son; the busybody; the self-believing charlatan; the dying child and terrorized mother, the showgirls.
Apparently the film also worked on a personal level to to heal its director's psyche, for just as Borchert's surgeon participated in war crimes, so too did Staudte work on Nazi propaganda films during the 30s. This movie was apparently his way of coming to terms with his complicity.