The Day I Was Not Born (2010)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I'm watching as many German language films as I can and this one has the bonus of including a lot of Spanish (my third language). From a learning perspective as opposed to purely entertainment, this is definitely one to watch as it has some great acting and some wonderful scenery.Unfortunately, that's about it. The premise is fascinating and I was really looking forward to watching it but after the first fifteen to twenty minutes, it became clear that the story wasn't going to go anywhere.The "twist" was predictable so this meant that there were no surprises and ultimately the actors didn't have anything to resolve because nothing really happened.It seems like they had a great idea but just didn't develop it very well. As a whole, the film felt very small.6/10

:The day I was not born. ........................ Maria, a competitive swimmer from Germany is on her way to Chile. At Buenos Aires airport, waiting for the connecting flight, she hears a mother singing to her daughter a Spanish nursery song. Maria starts weeping. The melody she hears awakes memory coming back deep inside her as the song in me. The German title of the movie. Much later she understands that her own mother sang it before her parents where caught by the dark times of the Argentinean military dictatorship. Told by her aunt Estella, the sister of her mother. All this when her passport and ticket is stolen and the police asks her to wait. She finds a hotel and phones her father, telling what has happened but that everything is fine, nothing to worry. But her worried father joins her. Worried not as father for a daughter in trouble but that the hidden truth about her past will emerge and the lies must be faced. Anton tells everything: her parents are not her parents and that her parents knew Anton and his wife. As foreign staff of a German business in Argentina he stole her as baby and could do it. More than 30 000 disappeared during the time of the Argentinean military dictatorship. When everything is said Maria contacts and visits her family. Alone. Without Anton. Estella, her mothers sister gives her a box with pictures of her as baby with her parents. She listens to a tape with the song she heard at the airport, her mothers voice. Maria is helped and supported by the police Alejandro, her translator. They start an affair with him. She asks if he does now the same as she: asking his father, a police, what he did then? But he is too much a coward, afraid to discover what his father did. He decides to live with unanswered questions of the dark past. Maria now knows the truth and what happened, asks Anton: "Why?" Anton: "We wanted you." Was it so simple? And Marias simple answer: "He is my father." Which he legally is not but the relation of all these years. Estella comes to the hotel and wants that justice must have its course. Now. Stealing a baby is a crime. Maria answers: "He is my father" and Estella: "I accept for your sake" and Anton goes free. Again. Is that enough? Seen against the background of what has happened? Estellas question is not asked then, yesterday, when everybody had its reason to be careful. The German second generation asked our parents what they had done during the brown years and after. The answer was a looking-away-answer. Why? They had nothing to fear. Only to loose respect in the seventies by them who asked, their children. Did not the same happen here: Anton and Maria loosing respect in the eyes of Estella and Marias family? Even then that the bondage with Anton was strong, build by all these years of togetherness: stronger than juridical law. The film ends that we see Maria walking the street of Buenos Aires, the camera following her. It seems to be an open end: the last word is not yet said. And can be said beyond the movie. Marias conscience vs Argentinian law.

German screenwriter and director Florian M. Cossen's feature film debut which he co-wrote with German producer and screenwriter Elena von Saucken, is a German-Argentina co-production which was shot on location in Buenos Aires, Argentina and produced by Fabian Maubach and Jochen Laube. It tells the story about Maria, a 31-year old competitive swimmer from Germany who is traveling to Chile. Maria's plane makes a stop in Buenos Aires and while she is waiting on the airport, she recognizes a nursery rhyme playing on a radio and is so affected by it that she misses her plane to Chile and loses her passport. After finding herself a hotel in Argentina, Maria contacts the police about her passport and is told to wait. Maria is still intrigued by the song which reminded her of her childhood, but when she surprisingly encounters her father Anton at the hotel where she is staying, he makes a shocking revelation that changes her perception of her own identity.Acutely and precisely directed by first-time director Florian M. Cossen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a humane portrayal of a woman's sudden confrontation with long kept secrets about her origins, her dedicated search for the truth about her family history and her relationship with her father. While notable for it's gritty and naturalistic urban milieu depictions, fine cinematography by German cinematographer and art direction by Victoría Pedemonte, this character-driven, dialog-driven, narrative-driven and conversational directorial debut which examines themes like identity, family relations, betrayal and love contains an efficient score by composer Matthias Klein.This humorous, romantic and poignantly atmospheric parable which depicts two merging and condensed studies of character, is impelled and reinforced by it's stringent narrative structure and the emphatic and involving acting performances by German actress Jessica Schwarzin, German actor and director Michael Gwisdek, Argentinian actor Rafael Ferro and Argentinian actress Beatriz Spelzini. A subtle, gripping and invariably engaging drama which gained, among other awards, the award for Best Cinematography Matthias Fleischer at the 31st Bavarian Film Awards in 2010, the Public Award for the most popular film and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 34th Montreal World Film Festival in 2010 and the award for Best Debut Film at the 32nd Biberach Film Festival in 2010.

"Das Lied in mir" (German title) is a pretty good movie. It features good actors in Jessica Schwarz and Rafael Ferro and a fitting (i.e reduced) cinematography to give the actors more room to develop their characters.Let's have a look at the plot: German citizen Maria is quite astonished, when she recognizes a Spanish children's song. She does not know any other Spanish. When she loses her passport in Buenos Aires, she has to stay there, in order to wait for police and embassy to sort this out.Her father joins her, apparently because he was so worried, about how his daughter sounded on the phone. But as we learn after he is dodging Maria's questions he is not her real father. She grew up in Buenos Aires was adopted and taken to Germany. And this is not the only lie that gets uncovered and keeps a good amount of suspense in this drama.While Maria searches for some of her real relatives and Jessica Schwarz is acting well as the distressed daughter she gets help from a cop (Rafael Ferro) who had a German-speaking grandma and can act as her interpreter. At the same time, the man she came to know as her father tries not to lose her completely.I liked the calm way the plot unfolds, while still having enough suspense and the succinct acting that I feel you get to see more in European productions these days. I think a lot of Hollywood movies are exaggerated and don't feel the least like real life, even if their stories pretend to be real life.Go and check out for yourself