A Woman in Berlin

Original title: Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin

2008
Unrated
2h 11m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

7.1K

YOUR RATING

Nina Hoss and Evgeniy Sidikhin in A Woman in Berlin (2008)

A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.

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Biography Drama History War

A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

7.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 4 nominations total

Trivia
The source novel was virtually banned in West Germany when it was first published in the late 1950s. When it was republished in 2003, it became a huge bestseller and nationwide sensation in a reunified Germany.

Goofs
When Germany's surrender is announced, the Soviet troops start singing the "Alexandrov version" of their national anthem, adopted about a year earlier. That version had no lyrics until Stalin intervened, and the heavy fighting wouldn't have allowed the soldiers to learn them. They most likely sang the chorus of "The Internationale," an earlier, better-known version.

Quotes
Anonyma: [in German] Soldier! Why are you taking a woman against her will?

Connections
Featured in History: Anonyma - Die Frauen von Berlin (2010)

User reviews38

Review

Featured review

9/10

Movie captures complexities of war

Although I was aware of the awesomeness of German cinema in the past decades, I was still pleasantly surprised by this film. The title of the movie implies a specific point of view - the plight of a woman trapped in Berlin during the last days of WW2. The movie is however far less black-and-white (metaphorically speaking, of course) than it could have been. It goes beyond a simplistic right/wrong attitude and instead puts the audience in a position to ponder how in a war atrocities escalate and feed on themselves in a typical "chicken and egg" problem. Even the fact that the book on which the movie is based was met with outrage when it was first published in the 50's is ultimately part of this chain.

There are more complex answers to why horrible things happen in a war, and in the world in general - and Europe has had its share of it - and this film manages to capture these complexities masterfully.