A story that is not often heard, and Faerberboeck treats it honorably with this restrained and respectful film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 5, 2019

An aggressive, brutal film and... tremendously valuable. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 15, 2018

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

| Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

An honourable effort to illustrate a period in post-war German history that remained conveniently shrouded for years.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 16, 2010

The suffering of these Berlin women, however tragic, is decontextualized from the infinitely greater crimes against humanity's millions by Germany at the time, which in fact was responsible for their fate.

| Dec 18, 2009

It's a rigorous adaptation, handsomely mounted and with fine performances, but totally impersonal.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 4, 2009

A clear-eyed portrait of a highly charged chapter in Germany's history, a history that once again proves rewarding fodder for an alert artistic imagination.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 6, 2009

That rarest of wartime dramas: an intimate, sorrowful glimpse into the heart and loins of the hellish aftermath of war.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 9, 2009

Though deliberately paced and somewhat repetitive, it's...powerful and enlightening.

| Original Score: B | Oct 6, 2009

No one is guiltless-not the Russian commander (Yevgeny Sidikhin) who takes the heroine as his lover, nor her bourgeois landlady (Fassbinder alumnus Irm Hermann), who welcomes the occupiers for their black market goods.

| Oct 2, 2009

The film is well-acted, with restraint, by Hoss and Sidikhin. The writer and director, Max Faerberboeck, employs a level gaze and avoids for the most part artificial sentimentality. The physical production is convincing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 24, 2009

This sobering account of such tragic events deserves kudos for avoiding sensationalizing a subject matter that easily could be exploited.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 15, 2009

Like The Reader, this film treads unsteadily over the terrain of German guilt.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 28, 2009

A disturbing memoir of rape and conquest.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2009

evokes the meaninglessness of trying to find morals in war

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2009

Sometimes a movie based on true events is forceful out of all proportion to its middling presentation.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 21, 2009

[A] brutal, unforgettable film.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 7, 2009

This little-known, morally complex tale of German women's endurance in WWII raises interesting questions and almost forces you to take a stance.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 7, 2009