It was a dark and stormy night, few days, period, er uh, end of a war.
Actually, it was all of the above. And, much more.
Cinema Sundays at the Charles continues its 46th series on October 18th, with the Baltimore Premiere of A Woman in Berlin (Eine Frau in Berlin). Directed and written by Max Faerberboeck. Starring Nina Hoss, Yevgeni Sidikhin, Irm Hermann, Rudiger Vogler, Ulrike Krumbiegel.
From the actual diary of a very real woman, this story was written by her.
It was written in the basement of her bombed out building during the initial invasion of Germany - and then Berlin - by the Red Army in the last months of WWII. This movie details the way German women survived the multiple and constant rapes by the Red Army officers who felt they deserved a much deeper victory.
Anonyma, the author, uses a single soldier to her advantage and essentially treats him as her lover not her rapist. The survival techniques used by the Berliners of that time round out Anon's tale. The diary should be read by every person, man or woman, who understands freedom. The movie should be seen by the same audience.
My congratulations and thanks to the Charles Theatre for bringing this film to Baltimore for the first time.
From the Charles: Cinema Sundays continues its intense, searing, take no prisoners pace this week with A Woman in Berlin. Based upon an anonymous account of postwar Berlin, it soon becomes obvious to all that the savagery of war ends long after the fighting has ceased.
Our speaker this week is my favorite German in the whole world Eva Mengelkoch from Towson University. It’s a pleasure to welcome her back to Cinema Sundays.
And we say, Yea!

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