"Bitter Ernte" or "Angry Harvest" is a West German German-language movie that had its 30th anniversary last year and was written and directed by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland. Just like her work "Hitlerjunge Salomon", this one has its focus on life during World War II, but not on the military actions or politicians from that time. Instead the story here is about a Jewish woman who manages to jump from a train that was supposed to get her to a concentration camp. The entire film (100 minutes approximately) is about the woman's life at a local farmer's shack. The man decides to take her into his house, but his motives are far from those of a good samaritan, especially as we know all along she is married and her husband may have succeeded with his flight too. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the epitome of an anti-hero here and definitely deserved his German Film Award nomination. If lead actress Trissenaar does so too, I am not sure, but I guess the duo carried the film nicely because they are together in here in the majority of scenes.
This film was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to the Argentinean entry back then. It is another solid installment in the way Germany worked on dealing with the aftermath of World War II and for Mueller-Stahl and Holland, it is among their most important and most known works. Even if I was not entirely impressed by this film, I still liked the focus Holland put in here and also how she managed a strong balance between happy and unhappy moments throughout the entire film. The way people talk in these 1970s and 1980s film seems occasionally a bit weird by today's standards, but I guess we just have to cope with that. And maybe they really spoke like that back then. It's also not so bad that it destroys the viewing experience somehow. Trissenaar's character is somewhat interesting as she must be among the most miserable characters in film history. Fighting for survival, she makes a couple bad decisions in her sad situation that ultimately lead to tragedy. From that perspective, the character was a crucial addition in this film, but I still believe it was more due to Holland's writing than the actress giving a great performance. Anyway, I am okay with the Oscar nomination and also okay with the fact that it did not win as it is a good, but great movie, mostly carried by Mueller-Stahl. A good watch for everybody with an interest in Nazi Germany and what life was like back then. I recommend it.
This film was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to the Argentinean entry back then. It is another solid installment in the way Germany worked on dealing with the aftermath of World War II and for Mueller-Stahl and Holland, it is among their most important and most known works. Even if I was not entirely impressed by this film, I still liked the focus Holland put in here and also how she managed a strong balance between happy and unhappy moments throughout the entire film. The way people talk in these 1970s and 1980s film seems occasionally a bit weird by today's standards, but I guess we just have to cope with that. And maybe they really spoke like that back then. It's also not so bad that it destroys the viewing experience somehow. Trissenaar's character is somewhat interesting as she must be among the most miserable characters in film history. Fighting for survival, she makes a couple bad decisions in her sad situation that ultimately lead to tragedy. From that perspective, the character was a crucial addition in this film, but I still believe it was more due to Holland's writing than the actress giving a great performance. Anyway, I am okay with the Oscar nomination and also okay with the fact that it did not win as it is a good, but great movie, mostly carried by Mueller-Stahl. A good watch for everybody with an interest in Nazi Germany and what life was like back then. I recommend it.