Lore

Plot synopsis:
The return of the Nazi officer father towards the end of World War II upsets the family household in Southern Germany. They pack in a rush, kill the family dog and flee their stately home to hide-out in a secluded cabin in a clearing in the woods in the Black Forest. Lore's mother carefully wraps a porcelain figurine of a deer to take with them.
Lore's father leaves for destinations unknown and with the news of the death of Adolf Hitler, her mother is aware of the fact she will be arrested too, and goes off to a camp voluntarily, abandoning her five children and leaving Lore in charge with instructions to go to her grandmother Omi's house in Husum near Hamburg. Before leaving, Lore's mother gives her all of her jewellery and some money for the train tickets. After the neighbors are no longer willing to sell them any food, Günther is caught stealing so Lore decides it's time to leave. Unfortunately the trains are no longer running so they have to leave all their belongings behind and start their 900 km journey on foot.
The children arrive at the ruins of an abandoned house and Lore discovers the dead body of a woman. She goes into the house to look for her brother Günther and stumbles upon a young man sleeping. The next day they arrive at a church and Lore pays a woman to breast-feed her baby brother Peter. They again run into the young man from the day before.
News and photos of the atrocities committed at the Nazi concentration camps are posted on a wall in the center of the nearby village for all to see. Lore looks at the photos intently and recognizes her father in Nazi officer's uniform.
That evening, they move on to stay the night in a school. They encounter the same young man on his own who later makes a sexual advance on Lore but is rebuffed. The next day he follows them out of the town as they continue on their journey. Arriving at a farm, Lore gives a gold bracelet and her mother's gold ring to an old woman in exchange for food. Lore finds the body of a dead man who shot himself and steals his watch. The old woman begs Lore to leave the baby behind so others will give them food, but she refuses and they leave.
While walking, Lore again runs into the same man. She keeps on walking and he follows them. A truck with American soldiers drives up and stops. When asked for identification, the young man says his name is "Thomas" and shows the soldiers his Jewish identification papers and says he is Lore's brother. We see he has a serial number from a concentration camp tattooed on the inside of his forearm. The Americans give them a lift. The next day Lore falls ill and Thomas provides food for all of them. While bathing, Liesel questions why Lore doesn't like Thomas. Later Lore approaches Thomas, takes his hand and has him fondle her. When he lays his head against her legs she pushes him away.
The following day while walking in the forest, Lore buries the picture of her father and the picture of him at the concentration camp. They continue walking and reach a river they cannot cross. Thomas offers to go across with Peter. Lore says he'll go across and leave the rest of them. Lore goes down a hill and finds a man with a row-boat. She asks him for help but he is not interested. She then sees Thomas on the road behind the man, so she allows the man to make sexual advances on her to distract him. Thomas hits the man over the head with a rock and kills him. Lore is visibly shaken. They take the man's boat and cross the river, but while climbing the river bank Lore is guilt-stricken and backs into the river with Peter, the baby, in her arms. Thomas pulls them both out and takes Peter from Lore's arms and hands him to Liesel.
Upon reaching the English sector, they are denied passage and must remain in the Russian sector. Lore asks Thomas if he told the soldiers what they did, and he pulls her back from the guards. They decide they will cross into the English sector at night so they can catch one of the trains that are running there. After walking at night in the forest they pitch camp. When they smell somebody cooking, Thomas tells them to stay put and goes off to investigate. A restless Günther sees a man returning and, believing it to be Thomas, runs towards him but is shot and killed by Russians. Thomas then threatens he will leave them behind unless they keep moving on with him.
During an argument with Lore, Thomas says he can't help them anymore and that they can take the train and reach their destination safely. Lore is afraid he will leave them and in her anger and frustration calls him a filthy Jew. She cries and breaks down, so he decides to stay. They manage to board a train but are stopped by soldiers that ask for their papers. Thomas finds he is missing his wallet with his identity papers so he steps off the train to avoid getting caught.
During the final leg of the trip along the muddy tidal plains of the western coast of the Jutland Peninsula, Jürgen confesses that he actually stole Thomas' wallet so he wouldn't abandon them and that the papers weren't his anyway, but belonged to someone else called Thomas Weil, who Thomas had been impersonating.
The four remaining siblings finally arrive at Omi's house. She takes them in, feeds them and lectures them to not ever be ashamed of their parents. She mistakes Jürgen for Günther, and they tell her Günther died in the Russian sector.
Lore goes to her bedroom, which was her mother's when she was a child, and places her mother's porcelain figurine of the deer on the dresser, next to a collection of similar figurines.
Lore finds it difficult to adjust and refuses to cheerfully dance to American music with Liesel in the kitchen. She goes for a walk in the woods and looks at the identity papers and family pictures of Thomas Weil in Thomas's wallet.
Back at the house, they are sitting at the dining table when Jürgen impulsively grabs a piece of bread. Omi scolds him for not waiting to be served by the housekeeper and asks him whether he has ever learned anything at all. Lore is angered by her grandmother's authoritarianism so, siding with her brother, she also grabs a piece of bread without asking, bites into it and intentionally knocks over her glass of milk, pushes the milk off the table into the palm of her hand and drinks the milk. Omi excuses her from the table. Lore goes back to her room, throws the porcelain figurines off the dresser onto the floor and crushes them one by one with her heel.

Tags: realism, horror, murder

Review:
Lore (2012)A gorgeous, depressing, rare film about a family of Germans who need to survive the chaos and poverty of the end of World War II.
Finding original stories related to the European theatre of World War Two is difficult, however this film brings an engaging and refreshing lens to the period.The film focuses on the events at the end of World War II including the death of Adolf Hitler, the tracking down of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, the aftermath of camp survivors, and the territorial carve up of Germany.
And that was no little thing, something many are not aware or perhaps do not acknowledge.As for the film, following the end of the war and specially the death of the one many Germans had come to think of as a saviour there is a sense of hopelessness and devastation.In the family that the focus is placed, the mother has to entrust the safety and wellbeing of her children to her teenage daughter Lore.
Set in Germany at the end of the Second World War, this film takes up where others like Downfall leave off and asks questions about how the erstwhile beneficiaries of Nazi rule cope with their new world.
Only the oldest, Lore, is really capable of comprehension and it is through her eyes that the film is focused, as she slowly realises just how much her parents are implicated in the horrors of the Nazi regime, and, as an extension of this, herself and the whole German people.
The most interesting and thought provoking films about the Nazi time seem to come out of German speaking countries fifty or sixty years after the fact and I was surprised to read that it was actually an Australian film and the director was Australian, but from the credits I learned that it was cooperation.
When instead of the final victory the ultimate disaster happened ,they were just not willing to let the dream go.The lead character Lore goes on a difficult journey from teenager to adult when she is suddenly forced to be the head of the family of five children struggling their way through the ruined Germany from South to North through the different zones now occupied by the US, Russia, Britain and France.
However, this film does not just take a dispassionate look from the viewpoint of historian's or news print, rather because of the wonderful direction of Cate Shortland, this movie moves completely away from ordinary story telling into the far less examined area of psychological change.Superficially this story is about a family of young children who are forced because of Germany's WW II defeat to make their way from the Black Forrest to their grandmother's home near Hamburg in northern Germany.
The drama is carried by this eldest child, Saskia Rosendahl, to whom many of the film's incidents occur.Moviegoers might be struck by the close-ups used by the director; most of the movie's shots are taken at that range and viewers may not like the method.
It tells the story about a fourteen-year-old girl named Hannelore Dressler and her four younger siblings who lives in Germany during the mid-1940s with their mother Mutti and their father Vati who are Nazi sympathizers.
After hearing an announcement on the radio about the death of Adolf Hitler, Vati and Mutti decides to turn themselves in to the allied forces and Mutti tells her eldest daughter that she has to escape with her siblings and find a way to get to Hamburg.Distinctly and subtly directed by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland who made her directorial debut "Somersault" (2004) eight years ago, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the protagonist's point of view, draws an incisive and instantly intriguing portrayal of a refugee's long journey with her sister and three brothers through a country stricken by poverty and chaos after the collapse of it's fascist regime and her relationship with a young man named Thomas whom is also on the run.
While notable for its naturalistic and poignantly atmospheric milieu depictions, masterful cinematography by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, sterling production design by production designers Jochen Dehn and Silke Fischer, fine costume design by costume designer Stefanie Bieker and use of colors, this character-driven and narrative-driven voyage depicts an in-depth study of character and contains a great score by German-born British composer Max Richter.This historic, humane, tangible and non-judgmental coming-of-age drama which was chosen as Australia's official submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 and where adulthood sneaks up on an adolescent girl and has her confronted with her inherent believes, examines themes like family relations, quilt, war, survival, national crises, sexual awakening and loss of innocence, is set in Germany during the end of the Second World War and impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, esoteric characters, cinematic poetry and visual grace, fine editing by film editor Veronika Jenet and the memorable and prominent acting performances by German actress Saskia Rosendahl in her debut feature film role and German actor Kai Malina.
Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) and her four younger siblings are abandoned as their Nazi- supporting parents are forced to flee the Allied forces.
As they travel on foot to their grandmother's house in Hamburg, the children encounter a young Jewish refuge, Thomas, on whom they are forced to rely for both food and safe passage through Ally-occupied lands.
As she is exposed to the lies of their parents, and begins to develop feelings for one whom she has been taught to hate, Lore is forced to come to terms with a belief system that is quickly unraveling.It's the children that have to do all the heavy lifting in the film dramatically, and they carry their weight, and then some.
Although "Lore" relates a story from the second world war, it reveals the point of view of those we do not often consider: children of a high-ranking Nazi official.
The acting is great, especially the young cast who all give very emotionally mature performances.The film walks a line between an accurately detailed portrayal of an historical past, and a personal and emotional journey of an individual (namely Lore played beautifully by Saskia Rosendahl).
The inner struggle and conflicting emotions of Lore regarding the Nazis and her parents role in the system are boiled down to three short scenes (without spoken words) and could have been a great story as well....
I have watched so many war films dealing with just about all conceivable sides of this most unbelievable tragic moment of insanity in the our human time-line.Some are great (Come and See, Stalingrad) some are sentimental (Schindler's List, Private Ryan) but Lore is so original I am jaw dropped.All actors were simply amazing, cinematography was just stunning.
Other factors that made me believe that "Lore" is accurately describing the post WW2 scene:The many suicides in the country that took place.The brain washing of the young and the influence Hitler had on the youth in Germany.The dichotomy of the German psyche with the differing views of those that believed in the regime and those that did not.There is great character development the lead character "Lore" was first rate.
Suddenly, she has to leave her familiar surroundings and try to get the family to Hamburg, where their grandmother lives.Saskia Rosendahl, who plays Lore, is a capable young actor, and she handles the challenges of the part very well.
And, of course, like many Germans, she had bought into Nazi propaganda, and expected the Final Victory right up until the end.The children straggle along through the countryside, with few people befriending them other than a mysterious man named Thomas (Kai-Peter Malina).
We can only speculate, although Shortland gives us some clues about Lore at the end of the film.We saw this movie at the Little Theatre, in Rochester, NY.
All I know is that so much of the film is left to the interpretation of the viewer and had I not read a brief summary on IMDb, I would have felt lost.The idea of a girl slowly coming to realize the evil of her country and parents IS intriguing—and in the documentary Hitler's Children you see interviews with surviving family members of many of the worst Nazi butchers of the war.
"When your life is a lie, who can you trust?"Lore is an Australian film set in Germany during the end of World War II.
I have seen many films focusing on World War II and the horrible traumas that the Jews have faced, but never had I stopped to think about what might have happened to the children of Nazi Generals and soldiers.
The film enlightens us as we experience this young girl's eye-opening journey as she discovers that everything that her parents have taught her has been a lie.World War II is over and the allies have taken over Germany.
Along the way they find help from the least expected person, a young Jewish man named Thomas who claims to have survived the deadly prison camps.This film wasn't nominated for best foreign film in last year's Academy Award, but after seeing some of the nominated films I have to disagree with their choice.
You can't look at this film as simply a survival story because if you do so you will be disappointed with the ending, but if you understand where these kids are coming from and how their world of privilege and comfort begins to unravel and shatter before their very eyes you will be satisfied with the way Shortland decided to end this film based on Rachel Seiffert's novel, "The Dark Room." Lore is a disturbing but touching film and one that's worth watching.
A story told from the Germans perspective about young brothers and sisters who were strayed during the devastated Germany by the war.
There's a lot in the movie to understand about the human affection while hating somebody from the eye of a teen.The story follows just after the Nazi Germany was defeated in the second world war where the country was divided into 4 parts.
A 14 year old Lore leads her family with younger siblings to their grandmother's house after their Nazi parents were captured by the invaders.
The story unfolds slowly and not always clearly, so this is not a film that will appeal to everyone, but it is a powerful and thought-provoking work that deserves a wide audience.The Hannelore of the title is a German girl in her early teens who, at the very end of the Second World War, finds herself abandoned by her Nazi parents and left with four younger siblings, one a baby, with instructions to take them to her grandmother's place, a long way across an utterly devastated land.
In her first film role, Saskia Rosendahl is amazing as a young person who, on a frightening journey, has to endure not just considerable physical deprivations but profound challenges to perceptions of her parents, her country and those evil Jews..
Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) is the teenage daughter of hard-line Nazis whose parents leave to go into hiding as the Allies tighten their net around Germany.
As the children set out for the weeks long walk towards their Grandmother's house in Hamburg they are followed by a young man called Thomas (Kai Malina) who occasionally helps them but turns out to be a Jew, recently freed from a camp.Lore is a compelling coming of age drama and a fresh story set in a micro world around a much farmed era of film making.Lore is fascinating as the central character, whose age is never stated but we assume to be around sixteen.
Lore slowly begins to realize as she struggles to get food and encounters first American and later Russian soldiers that perhaps the final victory won't be coming but her indoctrinated ideology remains steadfast.The film could be seen as an allegory for belief in ones or ones country's superiority over others.
It is essentially about collective punishment, since a teenager girls (Lore) needs to become surrogate mother to her young siblings, who face starvation in post war Germany.
A family of five children, left alone from their parents, is forced to travel through Germany searching for their grandma and some peace.It ain't easy to make a movie so weak about the WWII aftermath, but Lore try his best.
The young characters are confused and confusing, the cinematography serve the only purpose to bask itself in close up and flares and everything, despite the argument, is beautiful and equal, just like a commercial.The director had a good story to tell - from an unoriginal point of view I must say - but she ends portraying only the doubts of a Nazi teenager.
Lore is a drama set during the holocaust, but with a different perspective: instead of it focusing on, for example, Jews in a concentration camp, or on the Nazi officers, this is about the children of an SS officer who, along with their mother, gets interred.
Excellent photography with beautiful German landscapes against razed to the ground houses and desperate hungry countrymen, blond lovely kids that suffer the cruelty of Americans that kill all the children and Russians that shoot children, a Jew ( he has a number tattooed ) who brutally kills an innocent German in cold blood with a rock, the same Jew who says lies while Lore does it only to give courage to her siblings, her coward not-so-German looking father who, according to her mother's words, wasn't so brave to do something else (what ?) instead of trying to save them, Hitler etc in pictures as images needed to be buried possibly for future use, conversations in a train about concentration camp photos that were probably fake and many more, are simple misdemeanors.
Saskia Rosendahl is Lore, a strong willed teenage German girl, who, due to the circumstances of the end of World War II must travel with a young sister, two little boy brothers, and an infant brother, after her mother and father leave them rather abruptly at the beginning of the film.
I've just finished watching 'Lore', and found it to be a deeply moving story, beautifully shot on film (which is becoming a rarity), with a breathtaking performance by the lead, Saskia Rosendahl.I wasn't planning on coming on here to write a review, but after reading other people's views and comments, I was quite stunned to see one reviewer giving it only one star out of ten, claiming it to be 'Holocaust Denial: Trash!'.
It is the dynamic between Lore and her parents that I think is a key element to this film, and it has to do with how young people become genocidal, and what might make them break with their psychological training.
In the amazing scene toward the end of the film when the grandmother (also -- surprise -- a strict authoritarian parent) chastises Lore's surviving younger brother for eating without the proper table manners, Lore finally makes a break with her upbringing.
Based on the novel "The Dark Room" by Rachel Seiffert, the German/Australian co-production "Lore" takes a look at post-World War II Europe from an unusual vantage point - not that of Hitler's countless victims but of his many rank-and-file supporters (one might say adorers) in the days immediately following his downfall.
Lore (played by the remarkable Saskia Rosendahl) is a young woman who is forced to flee with her parents and four younger siblings into the Black Forest when the Americans "invade" their country, arresting Nazis and Nazi-sympathizers and liberating the concentration camps.
This anti-Semitic philosophy is really put to the test when Lore and her siblings encounter Thomas (Kai Malina), a young Jewish man who claims to have spent time in a concentration camp and who helps the family in their struggles.The writers clearly know that the audience, craving reassurance amid all the moral chaos, would like the characters' actions to be guided by an adherence to at least some type of moral code, yet the movie, aiming for a much more insightful and honest depiction of human nature, stubbornly refuses to cater to that desire.
Director / co-screenwriter Cate Shortland and Saskia Rosendahl as Lore brilliantly show her teetering at the edge of whether she should associate with Thomas, as an assumed Jew, or feel sexually excited by him and his touch, just as, in her fascination for the various corpses, she challenges upbringing that she should not have curiosity, and should not harm others or steal.This fractured sense of belonging in and relating to a world that is no longer the same Germany, but even split into three zones that they have to negotiate, is there in the cinematography of the characters, with part of a face here, maybe not in focus, a focus that varies through the shot to lead to a disjunction, or a conflict between the scene and the figure in it.
It is about a German family of 5 children forced to fend for themselves as their Nazi father and mother are taken to some sort of camp.
Before the mother goes, voluntarily to avoid death, she gives the oldest whatever money she had, and a few other valuables, instructing her "If I am not back in 3 days travel to Hamburg and find your grandmother."Young actress Saskia Rosendahl, about 18 during filming, is Hannelore, but just called "Lore".
Lore and her four brothers and sisters are forced to embark on a very dangerous journey across a devastated Germany during the second world war.
Left orphans after their parents were sent to concentration camps, the five must rely on a mysterious person in order to survive the harsh conditions they're about to face on their way to a distant Hamburg, where their grandmother lived.It's a very dramatic movie which describes in detail the cruel life that German people were living.