"Alone in Berlin" by Vincent Pérez (2016)

Excellent, strong and powerful war drama that deals with very important issues which - frighteningly - appear equally urgent today as in 1940s Nazi Germany. Basically its about conscience of powerless, anonymous little man against the incompetent, bullying government. Neither director Vincent Pérez or script writer Achim von Borries couldn't possibly imagine that at the start of 2017 we would feel very same anxiety and I don't care for people who don't see similarity, to me its same as those self-deluded individuals who refuse to accept the reality of Holocaust of man's arrival on the moon. 

Its 1940 and middle-aged couple living in a dingy Berlin's apartment gets the news about their only son being killed in a war. Although atmosphere was dangerous and depressing enough (with greedy, opportunistic neighbours attacking unprotected Jewish citizens, young men joining Nazi party and media machine promoting war) Otto and Anna Quangel have not until this point felt real scars of reality and suddenly their whole world falls crashing down. All their anger, frustration and desperation erupts in sudden act of heroism - they will write anonymous postcards, describing Hitler as liar and murderer, these postcards they will carefully spread all over the town. Its quite quixotic task as they don't actually know what kind of effect these postcards will have on people who accidentally find them, like fighting with the windmills Quangels continue with their mission while simultaneously we follow Gestapo searching for them. It turns into slow-building but gripping game of cat and mouse, as we understand there is no happy end and its just a matter of time before police will find them. There can't even be happy end, otherwise it would all look unrealistic and contrived. 

Apparently critics panned it, expecting just another shoot them, bang bang action movie because this is what cinema offers today. We are conditioned to accept fast-moving pile of special effects to knock us into coma, so when something appears slow, heavy and too serious, people seems to stay away from it. Its not entertaining, they say. Nothing is happening. Well, I say nonsense. A lot is happening and because the story takes time to grow, we can fully appreciate slow building horror in understanding how dangerous situation actually is. Too many people are complacent, lazy or selfish to accept the truth - and the truth is that it doesn't take secret resistance groups with weapons and planned actions but ordinary, anonymous people like this working class couple to start little waves that might shake people's awareness. I can guarantee you that at least 50% people I know would rather stay silent and save their skin rather than lifting voice against obvious injustice. It's not only that the acting is excellent but also that story makes you question the state of the world. As long as media lobotomises people around the world with meaningless entertainment, they will not wake up to the real issues.