Filip

I was going to abandon watching it after the propaganda-style beginning, but I'm glad I continued watching, as all the remaining part of the movie was unexpectedly original and devoid of clichés. The naked bodies and the love / sex scenes are beautifully filmed. The main actor does a terrific job, showing a very wide range of feelings, from ironical debonair nonchalance to despair beyond tears. The entire cast is quite good, the cinematography recreates a believable atmosphere of the years in which the German people were beginning to realise they were going to lose the war, in spite of all the methodical atrocities they perpetrated or merely witnessed. Quite an unexpected ending...

Well, well, well, what a wonderful surprise!

This movie was a journey into wartime survival. More than survival, being alive! Living. At great cost, at great risk, and with great "reward?". Beautiful at times, not "pretty". To the contrary. There's just enough joy, humanity, friendship, sex, laughter and perhaps love on the screen, to keep you from loosing all faith in mankind. At a time of such inhumanity.

Then and now.

The perfect time to see this movie?

Great performances by the way, especially Eryk Kulm. Deliciously sexy, angry, savage at times. Emotional, satisfying and powerful. Victor Meutelet and Caroline Hartig, really the entire ensemble did an incredible job. So glad we're able to see wonderful European movies on Netflix.

No. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. However for those who can appreciate other "perspectives" in life, cinema, storytelling, art and yes, history. Drink up! Loved it.

As A fan of war films, especially WW2, I sat down and gave this one a go, so glad I did.

This was a great story, always rooting for Filip against the evil Nazi regime.

Good solid film, with an excellent cast who all really dragged you into the movie until the last second.

WW2 movies years ago, there was a long list of really great movies, one after the other, some fiction and some True stories, but lately it's been slightly disappointing, so this hidden gem was a real delight.

It does have subtitles, but that doesn't bother me at all, but if you're not a fan of them. Just try and steer your way through.

Give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

Unusual angle for a WW2 story with a specific refugee situation I have never seen evoked in a WW2 movie. The Polish young man at the center of this story is a difficult "hero" to like in spite of his obvious plight, because of his brutally hard shell and the death wish at time that seems to motivate his acts against his survival skills. But his moral evolution can be understood well enough, and the unknowns in his trajectory can be easily imagined. Meanwhile life in the Stuttgart hotel where he works in 1943 as a presumed French waiter is a microcosm of what happens to Germany as despair, decay, food scarcity, army defeats and survival needs vs morality sketch the end in sight for the crumbling nazi empire. I liked how the movie mixed German, Polish, French, Italian and (maybe?) yiddish dialogues seamlessly. Subtitles in my eyes are not a problem but an enhancement to a story like that. It is a story of survival in a foreign land under brutal circumstances: varied languages are a necessary part of the hostile landscape. The actor who plays the main role is perfect in his ability to charm and scare at the same time.

I was totally absorbed watching this movie. It was beautifully produced, very well cast, and kept me guessing. I liked that fact that the moral issues weren't presented as black and white and people on both sides are shown exploiting situations for personal gain or revenge. I've watched dozens of movies about WWII, but none quite like this: none which seemed so real and yet so artistic, so full of surprises and yet so believable, and most of all, one with such a complex central character for whom I felt so much empathy in spite of his moments of cruelty. And I agree with one of the other reviewers that the climax of the movie is tremendous.