WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

lavatch The most common title of this film in English is "A Woman in Berlin," based on the published diaries of an anonymous female author in 1959. The film presents in a riveting manner the moment when the Soviet forces entered Berlin in the final stage of World War II. The atrocities committed by the Soviets, especially in the rape of women in Berlin, are well chronicled. But this film places a face on the tragic developments, as recounted by the anonymous diarist.The film graphically conveys the brutality inflicted on civilians, especially the women, as the Soviet army awaits the arrival of the allies of England and America from the west. The time seems endless, as the Soviets are awaiting the unified effort to deliver the knockout punch to the Reichstag.Nina Hoss gives a complex and multi-layered performance as the anonymous journalist and Eugeny Sidikhim is the duty-bound yet vulnerable commanding officer, Andrej Rybkin with whom "Anonyma" has an affair. The film is careful to demonstrate the Anonyma's choice to develop her relationship with Andrej was purely based on survival. She made a conscious decision to exercise the limited amount of free will in her grasp to at least choose her partner. The film gives a fascinating portrayal of how their relationship develops.The film may be excessive in its lengthy for such a a drama that is essentially focused on one main relationship. For a film that ran over two hours, some of the secondary characters could have been developed more completely.It is shocking to contemplate there there was outrage in Germany when the diary was published in 1959. Incredibly, Anonyma was seen as a "collaborator" with the Soviets at the height of the Cold War. It is a credit to director Max Färberböck did not let this important memoir die, but brought in back to life in this moving and uncompromising film version. Bravo!

Sindre Kaspersen German screenwriter and director Max Färberböck's third feature film which he co-wrote with actress and screenwriter Catharina Schuchmann, is based on an autobiographical book which was published anonymously in 1959 by an author who kept a diary whilst held captive by the communist national army of the Soviet Union called the Red Army. It premiered at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, was screened in the German Cinema section at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in 2009, was shot on location in Germany and is a Germany-Poland co-production which was produced by German screenwriter and producer Günter Rohrback. It tells the story about a female journalist who lives in an apartment in Berlin in the mid-1940s with her husband named Gerd. During the Soviet occupation of Germany she is separated from Gerd and as numerous other German women systematically raped by Red Army soldiers, but due to her lingual skills she manages to seduce a Soviet major named Andreij Rybkin.Finely and engagingly directed by German filmmaker Max Färberböck, this finely paced and somewhat fictionalized tale which is narrated by the protagonist and mostly from her point of view, draws a moving portrayal of a German woman's involuntary relationships with various men and her ability to adapt and survive in times of war. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine production design by German production designer and art director Uli Hanisch and Polish production designer, art director and actor Andrzey Halinski and cinematography by Swiss cinematographer Benedickt Neuenfels, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about a woman's experiences during the end of the Second World War depicts an empathic study of character and contains a great score by Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner.This biographical, conversational, historical and at times romantic drama about war crimes in Germany where an unspecific number of German women from varied age groups were raped both in connection with combat operations and during the Soviet occupation of Germany by members of the Soviet armed forces and in the aftermath died from the molestation they were exposed to, is set in the capital of Germany during the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, multiple perspectives, the distinct acting performance by German actress Nina Hoss and the fine acting performances by Russian actor Yevgeni Sidikhin. A heartrending, unsentimental, dramatic and authentic narrative feature from the late 2000s about human courage.

Saad Khan Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin – A Woman in Berlin - CATCH IT (B+) A Woman in Berlin (German: Eine Frau in Berlin) is an autobiographical account of the period from 20 April to 22 June 1945 in Berlin (Battle of Berlin). At the author's request, the work was published anonymously for her protection. The book purports to detail the writer's experiences as a rape victim during the Red Army occupation of the city. Two years after her death in 2003 the anonymous author was identified in the Süddeutsche Zeitung by Jens Bisky (a German literary editor) as Marta Hillers. (Wiki) The controversial German movie is about the women who survived the war by working as captivate prostitutes for the Russians. Just like every war all the men were killed and women were tortured and captured by the occupiers. The starting of the movie is really nice as how it shows how people have to go through and live through once Russians won over Germany. The women whose husbands were Nazi were bound to be raped and tortured by the occupiers. The performances by all the German actor and actresses and especially Nina Hoss, August Diehl & Evgeniy Sidikhin are admirable. Because the performances in these hard hitting movies makes you believe the situation. The beginning of the movie really good but the movie falls when they start showing the romance between German woman and the Red Army commander, it slowed down the phase. On the whole, A woman in Berlin is a really nice movie about the aftermaths of the War.

gelman@attglobal.net 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.