Purely Joyful Movie!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In response to the review stating the Germans and Russians hatred of this book. I have an original English pressing under the title 'A woman in Berlin' -Anonymous. Printed via Secker & Warburg (1955).I think it was closer to an ambivalent position, which would seem shameful but in Great Britain which hadn't gone through horrors of war comparable to mainland Europe there was still rationing the country was dealing with its declining empire,this I believe may have lead to a general sense of wishing to look ahead( together with a largely ambivalent feeling towards Germans sufferings).The general response from Russians I think would be obvious.I think it seems likely that the book with for obvious reasons difficulties including not having the author available ,tragically slipped through the cracks,as have many works in the past for different reasons .In regard to the film I think overall they did quite a good job ,It being a subject which can be handled badly and result in exploitation .or sometimes understate the reality and have an anaemic product,which looks insensitive and uncaring to the victims.There is also no eventual 'day in court'or cathartic victory or 'closure '.An alternative to this 'populist' approach may be something like Salo:120 days in Sodom which is revered by many critics but failed to reach the 'General public '.

My rating is 5 out of 10. Why? Just because of the fact that it wasn't made properly. A lot of scenes that don't make any sense and are just useless from my perspective. The movie doesn't bring you the atmosphere of the situation this woman where put in. It just revolves into the fact that women where raped and it doesn't show besides that. Also, a lot of boring and long scenes to just fill up the time.

This film deals with the Soviet Army's entry into Berlin in 1945 and the lawless treatment inflicted on the civilian population, the women in particular, by the occupying troops. An attractive young woman (Nina Hoss) seeks out the commander of the force in her neighborhood (Yvigeniy Sidikhin) as her lover. She needs him to protect her from the daily round of rapes by the common soldiers. Her own husband, deployed in the East, does not return until late in the film, and he is no less compromised by the time he comes home than she is. The woman is willing to abandon her moral standing to preserve herself. Eventually, she and her protector fall in love and that is a factor in his loss of his command and his compulsory return to Russia. It's an unpleasant story based apparently on the diary kept by the unnamed woman. Whether or not it is true doesn't really matter. It could have been true. The Russians hated the Germans, and the people of Berlin were mostly supporters of the Third Reich, who had every reason to expect ill-treatment at the hands of their conquerors. Recent wars have shown us that rape is a political instrument, and restraining a triumphant group of soldiers is probably nothing the Soviets were interested in attempting. As for the woman's behavior, who knows what any of us might do in similar circumstances. Saving herself by becoming the commander's mistress is not admirable behavior but it is a rational choice.

What a great film. It tells the story of the epon(anon)ymous protagonist, who both witnessed and endured the rape of Berlin in a very personal manner. And yet the film manages not to be too depressing until the very end, thanks in no small part to the assured acting skills of Nina Hoss. She conveys an unbreakable spirit and intelligence despite having so little dialogue in the film. And yes she did make me wonder what would I do in her shoes. Having watched it, I also feel strangely empowered about rape. Anonyma's story seems to validate that there is always more than one way to deal with a desperate situation.I am a tad shocked that the story of these women was silenced for so long, but knowing what I do of the German people I suppose I shouldn't be surprised - stoicism plays a huge role in their public life. Yet apparently 10,000 women died 'just' from being raped during this period of German history. It's a sobering statistic, and one which makes a mockery of the assertion of the Russian commander who, early on in the film, implies that STIs are the greatest threat women face from his soldiers. Like rapists everywhere, they seem blissfully oblivious to the physical and psychological costs of their abuses, and are correctly portrayed in the film as phallically obsessed, emotionally retarded cowards. It's important to remember that the average age of their victims was 16. The majority of these girls and young women were children at the start of the war and had no say in the actions of their government which was, at any rate, a misogynistic dictatorship. There has been a lot of discussion around what this film is saying about wartime rape. Were these women making concessions with the enemy, or were they enduring a relentless onslaught of sexual violence in the best way that they could? The film explores both possibilities. It also makes it clear that there is not one answer for every woman; in the film some of the victims lose their minds and end up killing themselves (or others); others find a sugar-daddy in the Russian army who gives them 'gifts' in exchange for protection (or at the very least, less violent sex).Personally, I see this film as a story about the way in which women cope with unimaginable, unjustifiable violence from their other halves. The scene that sums up the madness of their situation is when the 'girls' get together for drinks and joke about being attacked by Russian soldiers. Beneath the smiles and laughter you can see, hear and even FEEL that something is falling apart inside them. That they are on the verge of hysterics. I sincerely hope that viewers didn't wrongly interpret this scene to mean that women think rape is funny because to me it was very obvious that it had the opposite meaning. A cunning and subtle move on the part of the director, who never underestimates his audience. I sincerely feel for the women who remained in Berlin during this time, and so should every human being with a conscience. They didn't have choices: they were trapped in an occupied city with no way out and very few habitable buildings. The only supply of food and necessities came through the very men who were raping them. The Allied nations were well aware of the situation and did not intervene for nearly a year because they felt that raping Germans boosted morale (sorry to be so blunt but there was an actual quote to that effect from the American military). It's an all too familiar story, and one that has been played out in war torn countries right up until this day (Bosnia, the Congo, etc). So it boggles the mind that it's taken so long to make a film about the subject. I guess that just goes to show how male-dominated the film industry really is!!In one scene Anonyma confronts a major and asks him to do something to stop the rape of Berlin women. He replies, "Who should I protect? My people or yours?" My answer to that question would have been, 'You should protect the women and the unarmed civilians whom you're fighting to free.' After all, the whole point of overthrowing Hitler was to gain freedom for everyone, or so the Allies said. In reality, the fall of Berlin became a pitched battle in the war of men versus women. Eine Frau in Berlin paints a grim picture of what the world might look like if the men were triumphant.