In 2013, the film "Our Mothers, Our Fathers" was released. Actors F. Bruch and T. Schilling played the Winter brothers - the main characters of the film. The consultant of the picture was the historian, specialist in the Second World War, Zenke Knitzel, which already causes confidence in this film work. What is the film “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” about? Actors and roles, as well as the plot of the film strip - the topic of the article.
main characters
The film consists of three series. The greatest tragedy of the 20th century - World War II - is shown through the eyes of our main opponent in the film "Our Mothers, Our Fathers". Actors Katarina Schüttler, Ludwig Trepte, Miriam Stein formed the company of Bruhu and Schilling on the set. However, the names of their Russian viewers are little known. The series "Our Mothers, Our Fathers", reviews of which are presented at the end of the article, caused various feelings. In Germany, he was called a "cultural event." In Russia and Poland, the opinion about the picture is somewhat different.
"Another time"
The plot of the film tells about the fate of five friends who fell into a meat grinder of World War II. Very young children in the summer of 1941 meet in a cozy cafe in their native Berlin. Three boys and two girls have been friends for a very long time, they are full of young enthusiasm and make plans for the future, tirelessly repeating the words of their Fuhrer. Blitzkrieg! The war will be lightning fast, and they will return home with victory. Just a few weeks, on the strength of a month. In a matter of days, Poland was captured, then the Soviet Union, and then the whole world. You don’t even have to conquer it: you just have to come and take it. And they will do it, because only the Germans are a truly brave and strong people.
“Another time”, “Another war”, “Another country” - these are the parts that contain the series “Our Mothers, Our Fathers”. How many episodes will filmmakers need to show what happens to young people who first admire and then become disillusioned with Hitler’s idea? The director of the film, which is discussed in the article, believed that three parts were enough.
The emphasis in the plot is on changing the consciousness of heroes. In the first part, it seems to them that their time has come. In the second, they understand that killing and destroying is not so simple. In the third part, friends return home. But already in a completely different country: destroyed and humiliated.
At the front
The Winter brothers go to the Eastern Front and from the first days of their presence in the war they realize what hell is. The screams of the wounded, the whistling of bullets, fear and pain. Gradually, the realization that a blitzkrieg is impossible, and that the war will be long and bloody, comes.
A little time passes, and the Germans understand that a harsh Russian winter has come, which brought with it severe frosts, frostbite, death and a sense of hopelessness. They still do not know that they have a few years of nightmare ahead. They have to go through all the circles of hell, be able to survive at the front, kill and feel the breath of death behind their backs. But the most difficult thing is to go through the bitterness of defeat.
Charlotte and Greta
The series “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” also tells about women's fate. The actors and roles played by them are listed below:
- Wilhelm (F. Bruch).
- Friedhelm (T. Schilling).
- Greta (C. Schuttler).
- Charlotte (M. Stein).
- Victor (Goldshane).
Beauty Charlotte at the call of her heart goes to work as a nurse in a hospital. The human suffering that she saw inflicts irreparable harm on her psyche. Burns, frostbite, severe injuries, severed arms and legs, death, pain, fear and death again. The tender girl, the soul of the company and the laughter do not withstand the burden of human suffering that has fallen on her.
The second heroine is Greta. She became a singer and toured the front, cheering the soldiers in moments of rest. Greta meets Victor, a friend from bygone days. He was one of those who, in that fun company, in a sunny Berlin cafe, talked about the victory of the German army.
Greta finds out that Victor was in a difficult situation. He is a Jew, and his fate is a foregone conclusion. Victor is waiting for a concentration camp. Greta does not yet know that from there the prisoners are sent to gas chambers. But she is doing her best, desperate to save her friend.
"Another country"
Friends meet in the same cafe at the end of the film "Our Mothers, Our Fathers". The actors recreated on the screen images of broken, lost people. Three survived: Wilhelm, Victor and Greta. Charlotte was shot. Friedhelm died too. Survivors drink for dead friends.
Having survived the war, passing through the icy winter of 1941 and the Battle of Kursk in 1943, through concentration camps, front-line hospitals and the Wehrmacht's penal battalion, they became completely different people. Now, after many years, they realize that they have been severely fooled and that everyone has their own truth.
This is the plot of the film "Our Mothers, Our Fathers." The actors played in this picture, according to critics, brilliantly. Director's and camera work are also commendable. But the plot provoked conflicting feelings.
Reviews
The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a letter criticizing the film to the German embassy. The creators of the picture put on the same level the atrocities of the invaders and the single crimes of the Soviet military. In Poland, the film was also perceived negatively.
A special topic among Russian bloggers was the discussion of the image of mass rape of German women by soldiers of the defeated army. According to a certain part of the audience, the film is nothing more than an attempt to propagate German humanism. And it remains unclear what inspired the heroes at the beginning of the picture. After all, going to a foreign country, the Vinter brothers and their friends could not understand what they had to do.
The film is distinguished by German pedantry. The entourage was painstakingly built, historical authenticity was carefully observed. In general, it turned out a wonderful and at the same time sad film.