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Two Lives

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Two Lives (2012)

February. 28,2014
|
7.1
| Drama Thriller
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Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, but now living in Norway for the last 20 years, is a “war child”; the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. She enjoys a happy family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealments and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?

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Diagonaldi
2014/02/28

Very well executed

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Tockinit
2014/03/01

not horrible nor great

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MoPoshy
2014/03/02

Absolutely brilliant

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BelSports
2014/03/03

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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qariq
2014/03/04

For several years I was in the Army, stationed in West Germany. I worked for a time in Counter-Intelligence. We looked for and caught spies. Many spies had very compelling stories and most of them were patriots, in their way. But they were spies. They preyed on human weakness and betrayed human trust. That's the nature of the spy business.I liked this movie. All the reviews speak of the wonderful scenery, acting and cinematography. All good stuff. But forgive me if I find Vera less than sympathetic. She was a loyal East German who fooled a family, participated in the killing of an innocent girl, and betrayed her new home country. She wasn't "Lebensborn" but took advantage of them to benefit her old home country.Vera died. Too bad, perhaps. But her family lived and had to live with her story. Any sympathy should lie with them, not her.

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samkan
2014/03/05

The acting in TWO LIVES is top notch, not to mention the beautiful Liv Ulmann playing-get this-a great-grandmother superbly. The film is based on true events; i.e., the Nazi taking of Nordic infants to replenish Aryan blood with the post-war pack of returned children infiltrated with communist spies. The best scenes are in the middle of the film when we squirm and cringe watching Juliene Krohler struggling to keep her deception afloat. Sven Nodrin is also great as the husband suspending disbelief to keep his marriage afloat. Notwithstanding, the attempts to persuade us to forgive Katrine's deceit arrive too late in the film and the violence at the end, in hindsight, appears unnecessary to achieve TWO LIVES' ends. More tragic effect is actually achieved by the scene of Ullmann's empty eyes staring through the window. I forgive the shortcomings at the end of the movie, however, for the suspense and intrigue generated.

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Sindre Kaspersen
2014/03/06

German screenwriter, film editor and director Georg Maas' second feature film which he co-directed with German screenwriter and cinematographer Judith Kaufmann and co-wrote with her and screenwriters Ståle Stein Nilsen and Christoph Tölle, is inspired by a novel called "Eiszeiten" by German author and journalist Hannelore Hippe. It premiered in Norway, was shot on locations in Norway and Germany and is a Germany-Norway co-production which was produced by producers Dieter Zeppenfeld, Axel Helgeland and Rudi Teichmann. It tells the story about a middle-aged woman named Katrine Myrdal who lives in a house near the coast in Bergen, Norway with her husband named Bjarte whom is in the Navy and their adult daughter named Anne whom is living there with her new-born daughter named Turid. Sometime after receiving a call from her mother named Åse Evensen whom is picked up at her house by Bjarte and Anne and brought to their home, Katrine is contacted by a German attorney named Solbach whom has knowledge about her history and who asks her to testify in a trial against the Norwegian Government. Subtly and engagingly directed by German filmmaker Georg Maas, this finely paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the protagonist's point of view, draws a multifaceted and involving portrayal of a Norwegian citizen of German origins whom whilst looking for a nurse named Hiltrud Schlömer who used to work at an orphanage in Sachsenhausen, Germany during the Second World War meets a person who reminds her of her true identity. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by German cinematographer Judith Kaufmann and fine production design by production designer Bader El Hindi and costume design by costume designer Ute Paffendorf, this character-driven and narrative-driven about the criminal SS organization called Lebensborn which was founded by the German Reichführer of the Schutzstaffel Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) in Germany in the mid-1930s for the sake of realizing the Aryan visions of the Austrian-born Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), which was prominent in occupied Norway (1940-1945), which focuses on some of those "many" children who were born, in this particular case, by Norwegian mothers who had been in extramarital relations with German SS members during World War II and the ostracizing treatment of these children and women in post-war Norway, depicts a refined study of character and contains a timely score by composers Christoph M. Kaiser and Julian Maas. This historic, atmospheric, modestly romantic and conversational drama which has been chosen as Germany's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014, which is set mostly in Norway and Germany in the late 1960s and early 1990s and where a daughter whom is considering to begin studying law meets a man whom is searching for information about her mother and a woman who suffered the consequences of her Nazi countrymen's disgraceful experiments on human lives is reunited with the men who recruited her, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, substantial character development, efficient continuity, variegated characters, gripping flashback scenes, comment by Bjarte : "What is the truth?", the reverent and understated acting performances by German actress Juliane Köhler, Norwegian actor Sven Nordin, Norwegian actress Julia Bache-Wiig, German actress Klara Manzel and the noteworthy acting performance by Norwegian actress, screenwriter and director Liv Ullmann. An unsettling, heartrending and poignant thriller.

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OJT
2014/03/07

A tight, clever and well done drama based on similar true events, as much a a psychological thriller which is not difficult to recommend. Straight away I got the same feeling as when I saw the German Oscar winning film Das leben der Anderen (The life of others) back in 2006. And this Norwegian/German story has similar elements in some ways, though not to be exaggerated, with consequences going back to when the Berlin wall fell, in this great casted movie which has managed to make Liv Ullmann making a comeback.In a thriller-like manner we follow a woman in 1990 hiding her identity before going into a children's home archives in Germany in search of a secret. Then we jump to Norway, two weeks earlier to find out why this search has started, then understanding the woman is a German with a family living in Norway. We watch her being confronted with old memories, when a lawyer with German accent approaches her at work, wanting her to participate in a lawsuit regarding the so called Lebensborn-kids deported to Germany due to them having a German father during the second world war. The trouble is that she has a secret history in her life, which now is threatening to surface...Lebensborn is a dark page in the past war history. During the second world war many German soldiers had relationships to Norwegian women. The women was called German-whores due to the hard feeling between the two countries in war. Due to Nazi ideology the children of these relationships was seen upon as extremely valuable, as pure aryan raced kids. Lebensborn was forced adoptions of these small "children of shame" during and after the occupation, bringing them to Germany as orphans, losing their parents. This story is based in these tragic destinies.The film keeps interest way through, and is well acted and directed. A strong story making lives difficult several decades later.

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