After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
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.
– Fred Camper,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
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:
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.