In 1943, in Germany, Paulina Kropp (Hanna Schygulla) runs her own grocery alone, since her husband is fighting in the war. For months she has been living alone with her son, and she misses sex and the presence of a man with her. Paulina has a chance when she meets Stanislaus (Piotr Lysak), a young Polish POW. They have an affair and they fall in love for each other. Their love is denounced to the Gestapo and in accordance with the German laws, the prisoner is convicted to death by hanging, and Paulina sent to a labor camp.
This beautiful and tragic love story has a great narrative. It simultaneously happens in 1983 and 1943, in a parallel between the main story and the search of the middle-aged son of Pauline for the true story of his family in the present days (1983). The direction of Andrzei Wajda is perfect as usual. The change of period along the development of the story is very interesting, since many scenes happen at the same location, and we just note the changing of time because of the costumes. The romance is beautiful and shows common German people from a small town oppressed by the economical situation of a country in war, repressed by their own laws and behavior of their society, with feelings of love, envy, greed, friendship, trying to live and survive in a hard period of their history. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): 'Um Amor na Alemanha' ('A Love In Germany')
