Der Passfälscher

"Der Passfälscher" portrays the everyday horror of Nazi-occupied Berlin on a personal intimate level. A chamber play without bombastic abominations and the well known anonymous brutality. Maggie Pere's film is related to a German cultural canon as Margarethe von Trotta's "Die bleierne Zeit". It doesn't get much better than this.

"Der Passfälscher" is unique in many ways, to me. Like the use of "Heil Hitler". As an assurance or a feeler. Or the almost perpetually smiling Cioma Schönhaus. And the stressed fear of going out. Which also becomes a necessity for a filmmaker with a minimal budget. Also the depiction of a society where your life is plundered of every possession if you happen to be of the wrong kind.

I will watch this film many times.