A Promessa

THE PROMISE (Das Versprechen) by Margarethe von Trotta is must viewing. There is no easier and more entertaining manner to understand recent German, and Central European, history than by watching this film. It plays very well on video, and the interesting locales and action will excite those who dislike subtitles. THE PROMISE is an epic drama focusing on divisions: in love, in a nation, in its capital city, in its politics, and in love. Indeed a love story is the vehicle used for this extraordinary epic, recounting the three decades between the Berlin Wall's first barbed wire, and its fall. Some critics, forgetting what a historical epic requires, dismiss the film as cliche-ridden. Well, of course, "War and Peace", "Gone with the Wind", "Dr. Zhivago", were successful due to the use of composite characters or cliches. These are necessary to explain history in a medium like the cinema. Ms. von Trotta is to be congratulated not only for this and other great political films (i.e."Rosa Luxemburg") but for being one of the only German filmmakers to tackle the controversial topic of German reunification. A declared socialist from Western Germany, Ms von Trotta lends the film a point of view that is as unbiased as I can imagine. Don't miss it. A lot of people did because of the film's timing. The last thing I guess most Germans wanted to see at the movies in 1994 was a reminder of the results of reunification. For this reason, this great film was unfairly denied its place in European Film History.