A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.
A nameless woman keeps a diary as the Russians invade Berlin in the spring of 1945. She is in her early 30s, a patriotic journalist with international credentials; her husband, Gerd, a writer, is an officer at the Russian front. She speaks Russian and, for a day or two after the invasion, keeps herself safe, but then the rapes begin. She resolves to control her fate and invites the attentions of a Russian major, Andreij Rybkin. He becomes her protector of sorts subject to pressures from his own fellow soldiers and officers. Dramas play out in the block of flats where she lives. Is she an amoral traitor? She asks, "How do we go on living?" And what of Gerd and her diary?—<[email protected]>
CONTAINS SPOLIERS This is a real diary from a real woman. The woman cast in this film is too young too play the real woman. The diary was written by a woman in the basement of her bombed out building during the invasion of Berlin by The Red Army in the last months of WWII. It details the way German women survived the rapes the Red Army officers felt they deserved in victory. Anonymous uses one soldier to her advantage and essentially considers him her lover not her rapist. Her real fiancé returns from the front only to spurn her for being raped. The inginuity of the survival techniques used by the Berliners of this time round out Anon's tale. The diary should be read by every priveleged person, man or woman. Americans especially. War is no place for socialites.
Regarding the age of the author vs. the actress; the author was 34 when writing the diary. Nina Hoss 33 at the time of filming. Great book.In this movie appears Juliane Köhler who will later play the role of Clara, Fritz Shimon Haber's wife in Haber (2008).
