A German docudrama; A story of young Jewish people who, with great ingenuity and emotional strength and great risk to themselves, managed to evade Nazi authorities between 1943 and 1945. The film combines interviews with live action seamlessly. Technically, it is produced well too. While there are some establishing shots between sequences that look a bit amateurish, all in all it's a great story - a true story - absorbing.
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shakercoola16 August 2018
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"Die Unsichtbaren" or "The Invisibles" is a German 110-minute movie from this year (2017). This award-nominated feature is the first theatrical release after a lot of small screen work for writer and director Claus Räfle and he shows us here that he absolutely ready for the transition. It's an ensemble cast we got here that includes many fairly young German actors. The most known is probably one of the older ones already, namely Florian Lukas, even if he does not play one of the very central characters this time. You can check out the cast list for yourself otherwise. Let me just add that the females were all fairly stunning, especially Schulz, Dwyer and Fee.
Now about the film itself: It never dragged and that is a really positive achievement for a film closer to two hours than to 1.5 hours. I myself would really call it a documentary because honestly the interviews with the contemporary witnesses are the heart and soul of it all and seeing how sadly half of them died already now shows us how long Räfle worked on this project. The scenes with actors we see are really only reenactments basically from what really happened in the memory of these Holocaust survivors. But they still feel incredibly authentic and I totally liked the approach there. I am generally a fan of chronological narration and that helped here too for me personally. The film never felt that it lacked focus, even if it kept jumping from one character to the next frequently and that also is an example of quality execution. Mauff I am generally not a great fan of, but he was as good as the rest. There were some really tense situations in here that will have you at the edge of your seat and this film once again shows how reality truly tells the most gripping stories. The fact that we know right away they will survive does not take away anything from the quality. On the contrary, it should still make us aware of the many who weren't as lucky back then.
The overall idea was already a well thought-through premise. What is up with these Jews who did not leave the country in time, who were not arrested or executed. Here we see what happened to some of them. How they changed their hair colors, how they hid thanks to helpers (even among the Nazis) or how they just tried to go on with their lives as normally as they could. I think there were many really interesting moments, like the one when he says that young men were not seen anymore without a uniform and what made him an obvious target. I also liked how the film showed us there were good Nazis too hiding Jews, that there were "bad" Jews too helping Nazis to arrest their own etc. The attention to detail came all naturally thanks to the interviewees precise descriptions of certain scenarios and situations. Overall, this was a really well-executed movie that is almost a must-see for everyone with an interest in that specific period from history. It shows us that even with the hundreds, if not thousands, of films made about this era in history, about Nazis, Jews, the Holocaust etc. it is still very possible to bring something new to the table and that we have a responsibility to make films like this one and distribute them too as long as we still have these contemporary witnesses alive. You can watch stuff like "Das Pubertier" or the newest Schweighöfer movie and become dumber by the second or you can do yourself a favor and watch intelligent and important and touching works like this one here. Without a doubt, one of Germany's finest from 2017. I forgive them for the slightly over-the-top melodramatic title addition "Wir wollen leben". This was a brilliant 110 minutes. Highly recommended. -
karstenschmieder1 December 2018One of the more popular ideas in films that are based on real events or people is to show a small Interview fragment or photos of the actual persons during the credits. But how often do you see those Interviews actually integrated in the film, even driving the story? The interviews with the actual survivors surely are the thing that makes Die Unsichtbaren stand out among WWII/Third Reich/Holocaust-dramas. All of the Interviewees tell their remarkable stories in such a fascinating and humble way, that these segments alone would make the movie worthwhile. But they are so seamlessly edited into the reenactments of those events, that it is a real joy. Of course you could argue that this style is more documentary, less feature film, but the quality of the reenactments and the acting talent of those involved (especially Max Mauff and Alice Dwyer stand out) is enough to convince you, that Die Unsichtbares belongs in the cinemas.
Another factor is the positivity that the film depicts. Of course, its still a movie about the everyday discrimination and persecution of Jews, but it focuses on the witty ideas and lucky incidents that lead to the mostly positive outcomes for our protagonists. You wont see any on-screen-deaths or footage from the camps in Die Unsichtbaren. Still it tries to strike a balance of showing positive and negative actions alike from all parties involved - German Jews, German non-Jews and Russians - making the story a little more varied and complex than usual without ever being patronizing or sentimental.
At its core, Die Unsichtbaren is a polished German production that doesnt take too many risks, but its still a worthwhile movie with an interesting story to tell and good performances all around. The blend of Documentary and feature film works suprisingly well and makes this one a recommandation. -
GManfred4 March 2019"The Invisibles" is a sanitized version of what could have been an important film about Jews in Berlin who stayed behind and blended in with the rest of the Berliners during WWII. We are told approx. 7,000 Jews evaded capture but that only 1,500 survived to the end of the war. This picture is handsomely produced but is a bloodless rendition of what must have been the case at the time. No violent encounters, no shootings and no sense of the scope of the matter.
The semi-documentary style is distracting, as the actors portray some of the survivors, who are interspersed with the story. Continuity is the casualty as the narrative is repeatedly interrupted to interview those survivors again and again. Well done film that needed some Hollywood 'punch' and some added tension to avoid onscreen blandness. -
The scenes of vintage footage felt so misplaced. They were not tied to anything and the footage was pretty basic. They did not spend a lot of time focusing on the characters. Some more so than others. The interviews with the real people looked like it was filmed years ago. Could have been really good if it was just a movie based on their lives. It never quite worked as a movie or a documentary.
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Moviegoer192 June 2019One reviewer here asks how much more drama can be "squeezed" from this "event". I would answer an infinite amount. There will never be too much that can be said or portrayed about the largest act of genocide, torture and madness. To the already copious number of films on the subject, comes The Invisibles, a docudrama, so labeled with names of the two genres that combine successfully to make up this film. I thought the combination worked extremely well. Having the actual photographic footage of Berlin during the war gave the film an aura of authenticity that enhanced it. Also, the interviewing of the survivors, combined with enactments of what they were reporting, also worked extremely well. In fact, seeing and listening to them made watching the film more bearable for me as I knew they avoided the horrific fate that most of their compatriots didn't. The only reason I rated The Invisibles a 9 and not a 10 was because in a couple of instances I experienced some confusion, mainly about who was who. I think there could have been a bit more clarity in this area. Other than that, the world now has another documentation of something that you'd think happens only in nightmares.
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sangriakoenig4 May 2018A drama that seamlessly combines interviews with the last living jewish eyewitnesses with recreated film scenes of berlin in the year 1943. In fact this might be one of the last movies with actual contemporary witnesses. Under the many films that cover the holocaust of the jews and more specific the time when jewish people had to live in the shadows, this film is special because the stories of the contemporary witnesses are so moving and astonishing thrilling. A very moving feature with a focus on positive aspects and some of the last good people in the third Reich.
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m-mindel15 November 2019This is a must-see movie. A masterpiece of this genre...a blend of interviews, re-enactment and war-time film footage interspersed.
The individuals who were interviewed were eloquent, charming and insightful.
How important is to see how many Germans risked their lives to do the right thing. Rather amazing. I have watched the movie several times, and am moved to tears by the end.
Claus Räfle is amazing. It is such a pity that the film didn't have a wider distribution. But the film, will one day, get the exposure it deserves. -
bryangary6518 August 2018Interesting film telling the story of these terrible times from another perspective, with the heroes being the German people who risked their lives to help many young Jews hide underground in World War 2
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inspirelake7 March 2024I looked forward to seeing this. It seemed compelling and important. It was neither.
Sadly, the splitting between 'interviews' and the 'movie' created a downdraft effect which neither allowed me to get properly involved with the characters or to truly explore the utmost of their situations.
This should have been gripping, however it appeared to be a gloss over of a series of people's lives; more of a pallid documentary without any real showing of what a horrendous stress, terror, pain and suffering the situations of these young people were.
I think this was a massive missed opportunity of something that should have been brilliant but was not. -
mallaverack16 November 2020A reviewer incredibly asks how much more drama can be "squeezed" out of the event of nazi rule and the holocaust? The sick of mind are still amongst us. What sort of pathetic human being asks such a question.
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Sasha_Lauren4 August 2019Die Unsichtbaren / The Invisibles (2017)
This film is absolutely unique; it combines interviews with four remarkable Jewish people that, through all odds, managed to survive the Nazi invasions in Berlin along with a feature film type story that depicts these four as youth in 1943, and also includes vintage clips. The interviews are priceless; the actors are engaging and excellent; and each storyline is intriguing on it's own. Although each of the four stories is separate without intersecting with the others, the narrative is captivating and the film flows along and mesmerizes. Die Unsichtbaren depicts the courage, wits, and resistance of both the Jewish survivors and the German citizens who put themselves in harm's way to help them. I highly recommend this film. -
jakob139 March 2019Josef Goebbels declared Berlin Berlin Judenfrein, cleared of Jews in the fourth year of WWII. And yet 1700 or perhaps more remained, went under ground and survived, thanks to native intelligence and the good Germans who protected them as best as they could. Director Claus Raefle's camera follows four survivors, some alive at the time of production. With a savvy crosscutting of newsreels of the early 40s Berlin, recreation of life clandestinely in the open and interviews with the survivors add a depth of understanding and immediacy of Hitler's race war against German Jews. The narrative is gripping and grim, but uncompromisingly forthright. Time has hardly softened the film's import, for today we see in the media horror stories of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Yemen, Sudan and sorry to say Israel in the Palestinian occupied territories. We saw in Rwanda and Kosovo., Iraq and Syria, Libya... The novel Gore Vidal spoke of historical amnesia, a truth that is ignored, as events 80 years ago, let alone five years ago seem so distant. Forgetfulness or historical amnesia is a heavy legacy for as Santayana famously said, if you learn nothing from history you're fated to repeat it.
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raquelzidell-858449 August 2021A wonderful documentary- drama. These men and women tell their story perfectly. You feel like you are there with them along their monstrous but ultimately successful journey into And out of hell On earth......
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mm_moody13 February 2021I found the way the four stories are evolving in parallel, the permanent sliding between interviews, real images and acting , very skilfully done and captivating, although sometimes difficult to follow. I admired the strength and the intelligence of the four survivors, and I was moved by the help they got . I found the acting very good and convincing. I was completely drawn into the movie, which stayed in my mind for a while, long enough to start wondering about some events which were difficult to explain, because a series of details were missing. Those times were very hard, maybe there were facts the survivors could not or did not want to remember. Definitely I will watch this movie again soon.