Anonyma’s account of the wartime humiliations heaped upon German women by the Red Army caused a scandal when published in 1959.
Max Färberböck has produced a powerful and poignant examination of the conflicting emotions experienced by Berliners in the face of defeat. Nina Hoss excels as the once-committed Nazi journalist steering a course between pragmatism and affection for Soviet major Yevgeni Sidikhin. But while the setting is credible and the ensemble admirable, too few characters are depicted in depth. In contrasting the boorish Russians with the stoic women, it dwells on the very depravity it is striving to expose.