The Berlin Film Festival, which is dominated by politics, has always preferred such works, and it is not surprising that Christian Petzold, who is good at political themes, has become a frequent visitor to Berlin. This year's new entry in the competition unit is also a political theme. The most special thing is that the story of World War II has been completely moved to the current European background. The sense of chronology is uncomfortable at first, but as the plot develops, it can be seen from it. There are many satires on the current world political structure and European social problems. The director's experimental method of dislocating the time and space background is quite clever and effective. If filmed according to the original novel, the recognizability and freshness of the film are not much different from other World War II stories.
The director found a lot of plots corresponding to reality in the background of this time and space dislocation, which made the audience realize the incomparably accurate realistic meaning in the absurd and humorous scene. As a fugitive from a German concentration camp, the male protagonist met many European refugees while waiting to board the ship in the French port of Marseille. Ironically, these "refugees" were all well-dressed and carefree European whites who were only trying to escape the Nazis. And exile. This is undoubtedly reminiscent of the intensifying refugee problem in Europe today. Refugees in two different eras each bear different fates, but they have reached the same destination in the United States as an ideal paradise. Does this imply that the current European refugee problem can only be solved by the United States in the end?
Compared with this carefully designed and metaphorical time and space background, the love story in the film is much less interesting. The male protagonist who stole his identity as a writer, a woman whose background is unknown, the former's feelings for the latter seem to be atonement for the latter's guilt, while the latter always cares about the writer's husband at the expense of his feelings. The whole love clue makes the film gradually fall into a vulgar melodrama routine, and even the ending is a mess of romance, which regrettably destroys the amazing time and space background created before. On the contrary, the image of this mysterious woman is worth thinking about. She is like a ghost traveling through history wandering the European continent, with intriguing metaphorical colors.
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