Dos vidas

I stumbled across this whilst looking for German language films and although it's mostly in Norwegian, I still had to watch because the plot sounded fascinating.

I thought I had it all figured out from the beginning and that I knew exactly how it would end. I was wrong.

When dealing with conspiracies and far-fetched seeming events, the best way to go about it is with subtlety and understatement. Juliane Köhler as the lead 'Katrine', manages to portray the urgency, danger and horror of the situation whilst still being sympathetic. I honestly didn't know who to feel most sorry for by the end of it all.

The only criticism I have (and hence why not 10/10), is that I would have liked to have seen more of the family and how they subsequently dealt with the tragic revelations.

I'm very glad I watched this and it's an easy recommendation from me.

9/10

"Two Lives" is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I watched it on Netflix. It's a German movie that takes place in Norway shortly after reunification of Germany. Part of the story is about a woman, played by Liv Ullman, who fell in love with a German soldier during the war and they had a daughter. After the war, such women were shunned and the children sent to orphanages in Germany. To say more would give away too much. It's a masterfully written screenplay about fictional people, but such events did happen. One small part I could have skipped, otherwise an excellent portrayal of a sobering story. It's the kind of movie where you watch all the credits roll by at the end because you can't turn it off.

This drama takes place in 1990, shortly after the demolition of the Berlin wall had begun. This was a time when a young Norwegian lawyer felt that there was a good chance of winning a lawsuit against the Norwegian Government for reparations for the children of the Nazi Lebensborn program. Begun in 1935 the goal of the Lebensborn program was to produce more Aryan children for the Third Reich, mainly by way of Nazi leaders producing plentiful offspring. The program was expanded to occupied countries whereby Nazis would mate with with local unmarried women with many, but not all, of the offspring brought back to Germany.

The story unfolded in a way to keep my interest. On the one hand Katrine, the main character, is seen as the wife of a Norwegian submarine captain--part of a close, happy family. But early on she is seen on a flight out of the country where she completely transforms her appearance. At that point I was hooked to find out what her story was and I appreciated the slow reveal leading to some intensely dramatic scenes. The story is complicated enough to make it hard to describe without revealing plot details.

I had never heard of the Nazi Lebensborn program and this movie shows how focusing on personal experiences can explicate history in a more attention grabbing way than reading a history book. I wish there had been more explanation of the basis for the lawsuit against the Norwegian government. A little research on the topic explains how shabbily, and even cruelly, the Lebensborn children were treated, with the assent of the Norwegian government.

All the actors are in fine form--it's good to see that age is not keeping Liv Ullman off the screen.

You can read summaries of this movie's plot line elsewhere. This movie is all about Juliane Kohler's heart-searing portrayal of a woman coming to terms with her past. For me, five stars on Netflix, ten stars on IMDb.

Some have written that the plot is implausible. It is not. It is fascinating. I had never before heard of Juliane Kohler until coming across this movie on Netflix, but I now expect to see everything I can find with her. She is absolutely riveting. Her astonishingly expressive face is the centerpoint of every scene. In fact, at nearly fifty years of age, she is more beautiful than photos I have seen of her in movies ten and twenty years earlier.

Too, Liv Ullman is wonderful as her mother. I haven't see Ms. Ullman since her films with Ingmar Bergman in the late 50's and 60's, followed by the wonderful "The Emigrants". She has been too long away from the camera.The rest of the cast is also excellent. But Ms. Kohler: oh my, oh my, oh my.

A tight, clever and well done drama based on similar true events, as much a a psychological thriller which is not difficult to recommend. Straight away I got the same feeling as when I saw the German Oscar winning film Das leben der Anderen (The life of others) back in 2006. And this Norwegian/German story has similar elements in some ways, though not to be exaggerated, with consequences going back to when the Berlin wall fell, in this great casted movie which has managed to make Liv Ullmann making a comeback.

In a thriller-like manner we follow a woman in 1990 hiding her identity before going into a children's home archives in Germany in search of a secret. Then we jump to Norway, two weeks earlier to find out why this search has started, then understanding the woman is a German with a family living in Norway. We watch her being confronted with old memories, when a lawyer with German accent approaches her at work, wanting her to participate in a lawsuit regarding the so called Lebensborn-kids deported to Germany due to them having a German father during the second world war. The trouble is that she has a secret history in her life, which now is threatening to surface...

Lebensborn is a dark page in the past war history. During the second world war many German soldiers had relationships to Norwegian women. The women was called German-whores due to the hard feeling between the two countries in war. Due to Nazi ideology the children of these relationships was seen upon as extremely valuable, as pure aryan raced kids. Lebensborn was forced adoptions of these small "children of shame" during and after the occupation, bringing them to Germany as orphans, losing their parents. This story is based in these tragic destinies.

The film keeps interest way through, and is well acted and directed. A strong story making lives difficult several decades later.