''A Woman in Berlin'' (german: Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin), known as ''The Downfall of Berlin Anonyma'' in the UK, is a 2008 German film directed by
Max Färberböck
Max Färberböck (born 22 September 1950) is a German film director and writer. He was born in Brannenburg, Bavaria. He began his career at theaters in Buenos Aires and in Italy. He later studied at the University of Television and Film Munich, U ...
, starring
Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss (; born 7 July 1975) is a German stage and film actress.
Early life
Hoss was born in Stuttgart, West Germany. Her father, , was a German trade unionist and politician (member of the Bundestag with The Greens). Her mother, , was an act ...
and
Eugeny Sidikhin. It is based on the memoir, ''
Eine Frau in Berlin,'' published anonymously (by
Marta Hillers
Marta Hillers (May 26, 1911 – June 16, 2001) was a German journalist, and the author of the memoir ''Eine Frau in Berlin'' ('' A Woman in Berlin''), published anonymously in 1959 and 2003 in German. It is the diary of a German woman from 20 April ...
) in 1959 in German, with a new edition in 2003. (It was also published in English in 1954 and 2005, and in seven other languages.)
The film premiered at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and was praised for its portrayal of a morally complex and brutal period.
Plot
In the waning days of World War II, an assortment of women, children and elderly men struggle to survive in Berlin, cast out of their formerly middle-class lives.
The Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
arrives, defeating the last German defense. Its soldiers rape women of any age as they occupy the city. After having been raped by a number of Soviet soldiers, the film's anonymous woman, a German journalist (
Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss (; born 7 July 1975) is a German stage and film actress.
Early life
Hoss was born in Stuttgart, West Germany. Her father, , was a German trade unionist and politician (member of the Bundestag with The Greens). Her mother, , was an act ...
), petitions the battalion's commanding officer for an alliance and protection. After initially rejecting her, the married officer Andrei Rybkin (
Eugeny Sidikhin) is gradually seduced by the beautiful but battered German woman. She has a cool, practical approach to her life and has been part of an informal community that developed among survivors in her apartment building.
The officer subsequently protects, feeds and parties with her and her neighbors. Other women in the flats also take particular officers or soldiers for protection against being raped by soldiers at large. Rybkin comes under suspicion and he is reassigned.
Cast
*
Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss (; born 7 July 1975) is a German stage and film actress.
Early life
Hoss was born in Stuttgart, West Germany. Her father, , was a German trade unionist and politician (member of the Bundestag with The Greens). Her mother, , was an act ...
- Anonyma
*
Eugeny Sidikhin - Andrej Rybkin
*
Irm Hermann
Irmgard Hermann (4 October 194226 May 2020) was a German actress. She worked in film, television, and the stage, appearing in over 160 film and television productions. She was discovered, without formal training, by Rainer Werner Fassbinder who c ...
- Witwe
*
Rüdiger Vogler
Rüdiger Vogler (born 14 May 1942 in Warthausen, near Biberach an der Riß) is a German film and stage actor.
Biography
Rüdiger Vogler attended acting school in Heidelberg from 1963 to 1965. Later he played for six years at "''Theater am Turm' ...
- Eckhart
*
Ulrike Krumbiegel
Ulrike Krumbiegel (born 16 December 1961) is a German actress. She has performed in more than 100 film and TV productions. In her early career, she performed in East German cinema and theatre. After the re-unification of Germany, her career cont ...
- Ilse Hoch
*
Rolf Kanies
Rolf Kanies (born 21 December 1957) is a German actor who played many high-profile roles on the stage before switching to a career in film and television in 1997. Since then Rolf has specialized in German and international film and television. M ...
- Friedrich Hoch
*
Jördis Triebel
Jördis Triebel (born 30 October 1977) is a German film and stage actress.
Early life
Triebel grew up the second oldest of four sisters in the Prenzlauer Berg locality of Berlin. Through her mother, who before the fall of the Berlin Wall was a ...
- Bärbel Malthaus
* Roman Gribkov - Anatol
*
Juliane Köhler
Juliane Köhler (born 6 August 1965) is a German theatre, television and film actress. She was born in Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (polit ...
- Elke
* Samvel Muzhikyan - Andropov
*
August Diehl
August Diehl (; born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's ''Inglourious Basterds'' and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, in the ...
- Gerd
*
Aleksandra Kulikova - Masha
*
Viktor Zhalsanov - asiatischer Rotarmist
*
Oleg Chernov
Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blesse ...
- Erster Vergewaltiger
*
Eva Löbau
Eva Löbau (born 26 April 1972 in Waiblingen, West Germany) is an Austrian actress. She appeared as Nurse Gretchen Erfurt in the 2011 film ''Unknown'' which is set in the German capital city of Berlin. She also played the lead role in Maren Ade ...
- Frau Wendt
*
Anne Kanis - Flüchtlingsmädchen
*
Sebastian Urzendowsky
Sebastian Urzendowsky (born 28 May 1985) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than thirty films since 1998.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urzendowsky, Sebastian
1985 births
Living people
Male a ...
- Junger Soldat
Reception
The film received strong reviews for its brutal truthfulness. ''The Washington Post'' described it as "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."
The reviewer wrote that after the film portrays the initial rapes and assaults against German women by Soviet soldiers, it takes a "much more somber and morally complex turn."
The protagonist and her mostly women neighbors must "navigate a city that's become a physical and psychic no-man's land."
[Ann Hornaday, "Movie mini-review: Ann Hornaday on 'A Woman in Berlin'"](_blank)
''Washington Post'', 6 November 2009, accessed 7 September 2014
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
noted that "Yes, she profits from their liaison, and yes, he eventually takes up her offer. But for each there is the illusion that this is something they choose to do....The woman and man
ndreimake the best accommodation they can with the reality that confronts them."
[Roger Ebert, "Review: 'A Woman in Berlin'"](_blank)
Roger Ebert website, 23 September 2009, accessed 8 September 2014
''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' praised Hoss "in a supremely complex and modulated performance." It described the film as "that rarest of wartime dramas: an intimate, sorrowful glimpse into the heart and loins of the hellish aftermath of war."
Marc Savlov, "Review: 'A Woman in Berlin'
''Austin Chronicle'', 9 October 2009, accessed 8 September 2014
See also
* List of German films
This is a list of the most notable films produced in cinema of Germany.
For an alphabetical list of articles on German films see :German films.
1895–1945
*List of German films of 1895–1918 (German Empire)
*List of German films of 1919–193 ...
References
External links
''A Woman in Berlin''
at Strand Releasing
Strand Releasing is an American film production company founded in 1989 and is based in Culver City, California. The company has distributed over 300 auteur-driven titles from acclaimed international and American directors such as Apichatpong Wee ...
*
*
''A Woman in Berlin''
at Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman In Berlin, A
German war drama films
Polish war drama films
2000s German-language films
Films based on non-fiction books
German World War II films
Films about the Battle of Berlin
Films scored by Zbigniew Preisner
Films set in Berlin
2008 films
Films shot in Cologne
2000s German films
Women in Berlin