After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
While not fully successful, either as drama or ideology, film is marked by superb camera and montage technique recalling some of the firstrate German productions before the Nazi era.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
15 Apr 2009
rotten:
A confused and rambling study of disillusionment in post-war Germany is presented in heavily stylized fashion.
– Thomas M. Pryor,
New York Times,
8 Aug 2006
fresh:
The film's visual symbolism can be heavy-handed, but many images are stunningly evocative, and the scene in which the doctor begins his own recovery by performing a tracheotomy on a dying girl is genuinely affecting.