Das Versprechen

As the film covers 30 years, the key emotional points of such a story are incredibly accurate. The film's tone is brilliantly handled, the delicate weakening of the spirit, the darkening of the world, the East buildings subtly not changing but getting older while the West becomes subtly more modern. Unless one lived through much of the story, much may be missed. But every detail is important. Credit to the director, the writer and the actors for incredible performances: the repressed anger, the repressed joy, the repressed hope... everything just below the surface. Forever, the question, who could have done what differently? There was never an answer then, and there is no answer now.

When the Berlin wall is built to split up the city, a group of youths try to escape from the East to the West. Among them are Sophie (Meret Becker) and Konrad (Anian Zollner), but only the former makes it to the west. Konrad stays in the East, becoming a successful astronomer. Over the following decades, the lovers keep on living their lives with new families, occasionally meeting each other when circumstances are benign. Older versions of Sophie and Konrad are played by Corinna Harfouch and August Zirner.

Through the melodramatic romance of Sophie and Konrad, the film examines the effects of the Wall on the Germans. Things are more complicated than "East is bad, West is good": there are movements to both directions, and people have many reasons to move, or to choose to stay. The film conveys the atmosphere of disunity and bureaucracy well through realistic visual style, but the love story is strong in its own right too.

In an interview at the time of the release of this film Margarete von Trotta rather bragged about the fact that this was the first German (after unification) film after the fall of the Berlin wall that dealt with the 28 years of history on the East side of the wall. This remains to be seen, but if so, is that a good reason to come up with this dim, tepid and obligatory romantic drama that is predictable from scene 1? A drama in which the viewer no cliche spared?

The film looks more a kaleidoscope of political events in which the two main characters just happened to be a part of. The film never is a real drama and lacks every dramatic tension. The two main characters are simply boring people (not helped much by the casting); all other characters are one-dimensional. Some bad writing is also present: some characters, like the aunt, simply disappear from the story. As to direction and filmmaking there are plenty of uneasy moments as well. In the Prague scene the girl waits on the wrong spot for her friend; well, they just wait, but then "pop" a short scene in which she asks where this or that place is and then "pop": yes, there he is! The scene of the father in hospital also just seems to come from nowhere.

It all looks like as Von Trotta really wanted to show how very, very concerned she was about the 28 years of history and by that overplaying her hand. She should either have elaborated the drama more, or have taken the trouble for a more thorough interpretation of the political situation. As it is now it is a "everything political happens to poor us" drama. (5/10)

This is a great movie that many people can enjoy. I have seen the movie a few times and never get tired of it. It is a wonderful love story set in a terrible time. This film definitely caught the feeling of the era and I would definitely recommend this movie. Some people would be turned off because of the subtitles....but all I have to say is just give the movie a chance. The acting is top notch and the style of filming is quite good. It is a nice change from the constant Hollywood style that is usually forced upon us.

This is one my favorite movies of all time. I've read most of the negative comments on this one, and I agree with most of the criticisms.

Nevertheless, despite some uneven patches in the storyline, this is one of the few movies I've seen that has real characters with real lives that I at least can relate to. This movie ultimately is about humanity and how distance and proximity to what one loves and hates twists around who we really are inside.