Das Versprechen

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.

I can only praise the makers of this film, because many people did not experience it and unhappily, some do not want to hear about it. A female friend of mine recently told me, that now she knows why the Berlin Wall was built. Why, I asked. "Because the Russians didn't want the Americans to come in." It would be laughable, if it wasn't so sad. This is a person with university education and supposedly she never heard of people trying to get out of East Berlin or other communist countries. Most people form their opinions in their youth and many are not able to change their minds and admit to themselves, let alone to others, that they were wrong. Simply they ignore the facts. By the way, even after the wall went up, the Americans still could go to East Berlin, if they so desired. It was built to keep ordinary people in, because East Germans were leaving through Berlin in alarming numbers.

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.

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.

Ms. von Trotta directs with a very sure hand this very large canvas political drama about the divisions the German wall put between friends on both sides and how foolish its arbitrariness was. Wonderful acting and well worth spending time with. Stunningly photographed, as well.