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ROSENSTRASSE Send This Review to a Friend
German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta has zeroed in on a powerful story of a certain type of resistance to the Nazis during World War II. “Rosenstrasse” is a tale of how non-Jewish women married to Jewish husbands who were seized by the Nazis protested vigorously and almost miraculously, given the repression of the time, obtained the release of their men.
Von Trotta doesn’t go about it simply. She starts with a later date and personalizes the story through a daughter, Hannah (Maria Schrader) exploring the past of her mother, Ruth (Jutta Lampe), in an effort to explain her mother’s residue of anger and resentment in the mourning period following the death of her husband. Hannah’s quest is the entry to the story of the turbulent past.
The screenplay, co-written by Von Trotta and Pamela Katz, guides us back to the era as Hannah discovers Lena Fischer (Doris Schade), who is 90 years old. Lena cared for Ruth during the war when she found the young girl in Rosenstrasse, the street where the protests occurred outside the building where the husbands were being imprisoned pending planned deportation.
As in other films by Von Trotta, this one is packed with detail and is meticulously photographed. Although some of the dialogue seems forced, especially in the more contemporary scenes, and the story might have been told more economically, the underlying drama of what occurred and the emotional impact on the various characters combine to make “Rosenstrasse” involving. It also provides insight into yet another chapter from that critical time in the last century. We hear so much about the victims. This is a film about heroism as well as victimization, and it also deals with the residue of the war in the lives of those who survived and their offspring. A Samuel Goldwyn Pictures release.
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