From Hilde, with Love aka In Liebe, Eure Hilde

Hilde in the bath

Hitler without the histrionics, From Hilde, with Love (In Liebe, Eure Hilde in German) sets out to do something unusual for a film set during the Nazi era – to lay it all out for us, the everyday normality of it all, the “banality of evil”, to misuse Hannah Arendt’s phrase. But can you make a film about the commonplace without it becoming just a bit commonplace itself? It’s the true story of a resistance group, a handful of young people who spend their nights sticking up bill posters denouncing the regime, and focuses on a young woman, Hilde, who joins it almost by accident – she has typing skills and understands carbon … Read more

Summer in Berlin

Katrin and Nike drink wine

One of the big films of 2006 in Germany, Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon) caused barely a ripple anywhere else. Which is a pity, because it’s a great example of a precisely acted, brilliantly crafted film telling a good story without histrionics. In a world dominated by superhereos, subtlety sometimes struggles to get a hearing. It’s shot warm, and that’s the idea – the fuzzy, warm friendship between two women, Katrin and Nike, who spend most evenings after thankless days drinking wine together on a balcony and setting the world to rights while summertime Berlin burbles away below. While their relationship is good, the rest of their lives are a little shaky. … Read more