From Hilde, with Love

BERLINALE 2024: Nomination for the Golden Bear

A calmly told film about Hilde Coppi (1909 - 1943), who was sentenced to death by the National Socialists as a member of the communist resistance group ROTE KAPELLE. Liv Lisa FRIES, the superstar from the German quality series BABYLON BERLIN, plays this extraordinary role with calm precision.

The German director Andreas DRESEN has been making very successful films that deal with Germany's past and present for 25 years. DRESEN has already been nominated twice for the EUROPEAN FILM AWARD (2002 for HALBE TREPPE / 2008 for WOLKE NEUN).

Partly in flashbacks (with wonderful images of the Müggelsee in summer), the story of the married couple Hans (Johannes HEGEMANN) and Hilde Coppi, who offered modest resistance to the Nazi regime through a communist-minded circle of friends, is impressively told. Both were sentenced to death in the merciless dictatorship. Their son Hans Coppi Junior was born while they were still in prison, and his voice can be heard at the end of the film as an 80-year-old man.

This film is a monument to the Coppis and their circle of friends that is worth seeing. Other roles include wonderful German actors such as Lisa WAGNER as a prison guard who is gradually becoming capable of compassion, Alexander SCHEER (EUROPEAN FILM AWARD 2019: nomination for GUNDERMANN) as a sensitive priest and Florian LUKAS (known from the German quality series WEISSENSEE) as a nasty prison doctor.

Well worth seeing!

While at it's core another traditional basic biographical structure, director Andreas Dresen does a solid work on presenting the relationship and history of the two character of Hilde and Hans Coppi with two strong lead performances from the cast and including some solid direction choices.

Stories about anti-Nazi and the war period has been done many times and Dresen offers at times some good direction and atmosphere approaches. Regarding it's writing being predictable and nothing too special when it comes to context, history and development, especially character development, the strong performances, solid camerawork and certain dialogue moments remain ambitious.

Who would expect a film set in 1942 Nazi Germany about a group of resistance fighters to be cheerful? But this film, based on true events, is compelling if at times confronting. Hilde is a young, pregnant woman who with her husband is caught with an illegal radio transmitter and is eventually sentenced to death. Through flashbacks the film tells the story of the couple meeting and the attempts at resistance they and their friends undertake. Oddly, these flashbacks do move around in time, mostly but not always moving further back, but it's always clear where the viewer is. Once caught, Hilde's prison experience is at times confronting, but I really appreciated that most of the prison staff are not presented one dimensionally but with touches of humanity as well. As noted in the details in IMDB, the film concludes with a few words from her son, born in prison and now 80. Overall, the acting, the cinematography and the editing are properly subservient to the storytelling so that only in retrospect does one realise how effective they are.

Not watching this! I actually recommend watching this, so no pun intended as always. We can only imagine how it must have been - although you do have countries where .... well there is one form of dictatorship or another ... if you feel I attacked the country you are living in - well that is on you. As in don't blame me for what you perceive to be your truth or what you feel to be true - my words are kept to a minimum. Just saying.

And I am not tip toeing around anything for any specific reason - as in I don't expect to get the treatment our main character is getting here. I'd hope that does not happen - to anybody ... but again we have seen things happening lately .. so there is a crazy world out there.

Which makes this an important watch I assume ... and powerful ... even if not easy to watch! What would you do? Not easy to answer.

Movie based on true events of how Hilde Coppi got involved in the german resistance group named "Rote Kapelle" ("Red Orchestra"). This resistance group was thereby focussed mainly on contacts with Russia. The movie thereby has a main focus on the arrest and imprisonment that took place around 1942-43, whilst Hilde Coppis involvement in the Rote Kapelle is shown through many flashbacks.

At first sight, this movie makes you think about the 2005 movie which is about "Sophie Scholl", whom was a member of the Munich resistance group "Weisse Rose". I personally think though that the two movies could not be more different. The movie about Hilde Coppi is way more slowgoing - and at times even a depressing watch - than the movie about Sophie Scholl. A lot of it has of course to do with what the director of the movie wanted to show: (1) a fast paced life with high risk resistance work in the movie about Sophie Scholl, versus (2) love and suffering in the movie about Hilde Coppi.

The acting and scenes are all very attractive to watch. Apart from some minor mistakes - including the often made mistake of using glasses with modern lenses having a green/purple anti glare coating - this movie looks pretty period-authentic. I personally think though that this movie could benefit significantly if it would be shortened to 90 minutes (instead of its current 125 minutes). It also could benefit from adding good music since it is pretty "silent" on that point.

Overall, I score this movie 5.6/10, resulting in a 6-star IMDb rating. Due to the relevance of the Rote Kapelle resistance group, this movie is an interesting watch for anyone who wants to learn more about how german people themselves tried to pose some resistance against the Nazi regime.