Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Tom Schilling | ... | Kurt Barnert | |
Sebastian Koch | ... | Professor Carl Seeband | |
Paula Beer | ... | Ellie Seeband | |
Saskia Rosendahl | ... | Elisabeth May | |
Oliver Masucci | ... | Professor Antonius van Verten | |
Hanno Koffler | ... | Günther Preusser | |
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Cai Cohrs | ... | Kurt Barnert 6 Jahre |
Evgeniy Sidikhin | ... | NKWD Major Murawjow (as Evgeny Sidikhin) | |
Ulrike C. Tscharre | ... | Frau Hellthaler | |
Jörg Schüttauf | ... | Johann Barnert | |
Jeanette Hain | ... | Waltraut Barnert | |
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Hans-Uwe Bauer | ... | Professor Horst Grimma |
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Ina Weisse | ... | Martha Seeband |
Lars Eidinger | ... | Ausstellungsführer Heiner Kerstens | |
Johanna Gastdorf | ... | Großmutter Malvine |
Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation. Written by Wiedemann & Berg Film
I am reluctant to write my review of this film, only because I fear I won't do it justice. This film is a masterpiece of the first order. According to Wikipedia, it received a 14-minute standing ovation when it was first shown at a European film festive. I can testify that it received a 14-minute standing ovation in my living room.
We follow a small circle of characters through approximately 30 years of tumultuous history. We are intensely interested in the fate of each of them. There is humor, pathos, agony, exhilaration, discovery, closure, wonder, and astonishment in every scene. The acting is astounding, as is every other aspect of movie making. Bach's beautiful "Sheep May Safely Graze" is used throughout the movie; ironically, of course, because in Hitler's Germany, the sheep were not safe.
My life has rarely been changed, set on a new path, by a film, but I can say this one has done it. I wish the same for you. Watch it over a period of two days, because you probably won't be able to take it all in in only one.