Watch A Woman in Berlin For Free

Pretty Good

Great Film overall

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I have not seen a better film portraying civilian women in WWII. The daily sturggle between reality, morality and idealogy. Men on the other side pour their rage and revenge upon them. Men on their side cannot understand what they have undergone and cannot forgive what they have done. The women of Berlin had no one but themselves. Some chose to fight and die, and some, like the protagonist, chose to survive and kept her hope for the eventual reunion with her husband. As she described, Russian men appreciated well-educated women, while German men were the opposite. The supposed savage and animal whom she chose as protector turned out to be something quite different, and he gave everything to save her, even wanted to take her with him after the war. This reality clashed with the long and endless waiting of her husband. The 30-minute promise was long overdue and she had to make a choice. Yet again, fate chose for her. The commander was taken away by NKVD for what he did to save her, and the returning husband was not the person she was waiting for anymore- bitter, broken, and alienated.The woman at first was terrified and angered by the barbaric behaviours of the Red Army. As time passes, she began to understand their pain and realised the Germans also committed horrific atrocities against civilians. Her blind patriotism was unsettled by the accounts of the enemy, the feeling of betrayal by her own government, and worst of all, her own fellow German men, who left them defenseless. This was the beginning of post-war Germany- the rise of sexual equality and limited government authority.

This is very accurate film of the way the people of Berlin were treated by many of the Russians. Very well acted by the ensemble. Even with subtitles I found the film very good. The lead actress, Nina was outstanding with her facial actions of a woman in such distress and trying to regain some dignity. The ongoing eye contact with the Major really drove home the relationship they had. The Major's defending the people against his own troops and yet trying to remain in control was evident as a struggle. One can only imagine living in such conditions and trying to survive. This retribution against the citizens seemed right to the invading troops for what was perpetrated on their country by the German troops. This is a very true account of humanity vs inhuman acts.

Pure, boring ahistorical Euro-trash. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the victory of Western Capitalism, the West is rewriting history. All films are propaganda. Film costs millions to make. Bankers/Financiers are not going to finance films where they teach working class people their own history. Period. The film doesn't work on a historical level nor as an artistic cinematic endeavor.From the point of view of history: Many family members & neighbors lived in Nazi Germany. This story is purely fictional. Were there any Russian soldiers who raped German women? Of course. American soldiers who raped German women? Of course. In fact, some women are being raped as we speak whether on the streets of New York City, Rome, or China. The relevant question to ask was whether the Soviet government ever encouraged or legalized rape during WW2? The answer is: Absolutely, not! Let's look at the time period: World War 2 was coming to an end and all of Eastern Europe went socialist. France, Italy, Germany, and Greece were also going to go socialist. The Finance Bankers of the US and Great Britain wanted to stop this from happening. Thus the Marshall Plan was created. It was a battle between the East and West for the hearts and minds of not only the East Germans, but the Central Europeans. If Russian soldiers were raping millions of East German women as this film falsely show, why did East Germany become socialist and remain socialist for over 40 years? Why are East Germans; particularly East German women protesting by the hundreds of thousands to restore socialism there? From the prospective of artistic endeavor: Because a film may have been created as a piece of propaganda doesn't mean the production values need to be low are unwatchable. Regardless of how I feel about Nazi Germany, many of their film productions like Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will were masterpieces of their time that still resonant to today's audience. Lousy direction, abysmal acting, horrible cinematography, and poor script make this film unwatchable. The cinematography is shot in an almost gray pallor. Why? I don't know. Was the world black and white before 1960? The script and dialogue is silly and vulgar beyond belief. I'm ashamed and my German Protestant Family would have been even more ashamed. To give just one of several examples: An old lady willingly raped repeatedly by Russian soldiers comments how Russian men love having sex with her because as she depicts with her hand her vagina is small like a pea; unlike Ukrainian women who have vaginas the size of grapefruits. First, why would any young soldier, let alone many, want to rape ugly, old women old enough to be their grandmother? It's ridiculous! More over the overt racism against Ukrainian women is offensive and the dialogue just plain smut. Women didn't speak like this when I was a young woman in NYC in the 1990's and they for sure didn't speak this way in sexually repressed post-war Germany.One last thing before I end my review: A relevant question to ask is why certain films are financed and not others? This was a film destined to flop at the box office, so why would Bankers finance bombs ? Simple: This was the period when Austerity began and workers throughout Europe were having their worker rights' destroyed, pensions decimated, and so on. The film's purpose is to make people doubt the possibility that a better alternative is possible, so people continue to accept the tyranny of the Robber-Baron, Finance Capitalists 1%. By demonizing the Soviet Union, the 1% is trying to indoctrinate into the population that all alternatives are worse. 1 Star-Rotten. Pure trash, if it would have been created to be trashy Euro-porn, it would have been less trashy.

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.