As it's name suggests, Christian Schwochow's 'West' is a film about the West, but also the East: specifically, about cold-war Germany. Its central protagonist, wonderfully played by the beautiful Joerdis Triebel, is a somewhat arrogant east German who, on crossing the iron curtain, struggles to cope with the demands made of an unconnected immigrant in a strange country; but who also struggles with the legacy of her past. The film neither glosses over the evils of the eastern regime, nor suggests that life in the west is a simple panacea; above all else, it demonstrates the fatal way that police states damage the institution of trust in a way that cannot easily be repaired. The ambiguous figure of a rumoured informer provides a focus for a powerful story that is ultimately more about people than systems.
