(Australia/Germany, 108 min.)
Dir. Cate Shortland, Writ. Robin Mukherjee, Cate Shortland
Starring: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina
Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Mika Seidel, André Frid, Eva-Maria Hagen
Lore is a brave,
beautiful film. As Australia’s official submission for Best Foreign Language
Film at this year’s Academy Awards, Lore is
surely going places. The film marks the long awaited return of director Cate
Shortland after her astounding 2004 breakthrough debut Somersault. As strong as Somersault
was, though, Lore is a massive
leap forward for Shortland.
Lore, played a most impressive Saskia Rosendahl, is the
eldest daughter of a Nazi officer. Lore's father and mother raised their five
children to have unwavering devotion to the Führer, so Lore and her siblings
are blind to the actual goings on of the Holocaust. Even as Lore’s mother,
Mutti (Ursina Lardi), packs up the family’s valuables, burns countless stacks
of paper, and teaches the kids how to barter for survival, Lore and the other
children still believe in the strength of their leader.
The German officers are under siege and some are coming out
of hiding with plans to surrender. Mutti eventually concedes defeat and packs
up to join her husband at a camp, leaving Lore to tend to her four brothers and
sisters, one of whom is a baby. Under Mutti’s advice, Lore takes the children
across the Black Forest to their Omi’s house in Hamburg. It’s a long, arduous
journey for their kids. They have no transportation, save for a carriage, and
trains have long since stopped running, as Lore soon learns from travellers
they meet along the way.
They have no food, either, and they must do as they must to
ensure their survival. The baby proves as much an asset as it is a liability.
Even though it cries throughout the night, passersby take extra notice at a
screaming infant and are more apt to sympathize and offer food.
The central question of Lore
is daringly complex. Namely, how does an innocent make sense of the world when everything
she has been taught is a lie? Raised on patriotic songs and (presumably) the
films of Leni Riefenstahl, the kids salute and cry “Heil Hitler” as naturally
as they breathe.
Much like Komona’s retrospective account in Rebelle, the real horror of Lore’s journey
is discovering how greatly she was duped by her parents and teachers. As Lore treks
across the war-torn land and seeks shelter, she discovers signs the reveal to
her the truth of her parents, her nation, and herself. Photos abound of Nazi
atrocities and the reality of the image gives proof of the Nazis’ true actions,
yet many of the adults Lore encounters deny the photos. They are simply staged
by Hollywood, they say. However, Lore must confront her perception of the “filthy
Jews” when the greatest ally on her journey becomes a young man who escaped the
camps (Kai Malina). When few of her blonde-haired and blue-eyed countrymen offer help to
Lore and her siblings, they are forced to rely on a man they were taught to
hate.
Lore takes its
depiction of Nazi faith even further when Lore comes to the end of her journey
and faces her elders’ unwavering devotion to the Führer once again. Lore shows how easily Lore’s generation
could have slipped back into the beliefs it was taught; however, as Lore
performs in a defiant act of vengeance against one of her mother’s prized
possessions, Shortland offers an evocative symbol that shatters hope of Nazi
reprisal.
Thanks to the fearless approach of Shortland’s direction,
not to mention her hand at haunting composition, Lore is a powerful and thought-provoking film. It’s a sumptuous thing
of beauty, too, thanks to the gorgeous efforts by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw,
composer Max Richter, and, above all, young Rosendahl in the title role. Lore doubtlessly stands among the most beautiful,
intelligent, and praiseworthy films of the year.
Rating: ★★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Update: Lore opens in Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox on May 31
Update: Lore opens in Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox on May 31
