Review of Lore (2012) by Walter M — 03 Mar 2013

Let's start at the end for this one, shall we? In this case, it is the end of the Third Reich which sends a Nazi officer(Hans-Jochen Wagner) and his wife(Ursina Lardi) packing. While he goes off for one last offensive, she takes her five children to a cabin in the country to hide. That does not last long as the Americans are soon to crash the party. So, she gives her oldest daughter, Lore(Saskia Rosendahl), detailed instructions and directions, along with every precious piece of jewelry she has including her wedding ring, that she is to go to a relative's house near Hamburg if she does not return in three days' time. Lore does not wait that long as her younger brother Gunther(Andre Frid) is caught stealing.

Directed by Cate Shortland, "Lore" is a harrowing, provocative and haunting tale of survival. The fact that it involves someone as hateful as Lore should not take away from appreciating the movie's visual poetry. Before the fall was the fairy tale for the children and after it is the reality, as they encounter people who either dislike them or in a state of denial themselves, as she desperately tries to keep her family together. Even though she is at an age when she should know the difference, all Lore has known is what her mother has told her who has followed the Nazi ideology herself, especially the part involving having large families, as she is still having children into middle age.(In retrospect, Lore should know there is nothing to be feared from the Americans but that's not what she has been told.) That's where the title's double meaning comes in, as lore could also be defined as knowledge. So, yes, the movie hits what could be considered a false note in its open ending, but it could also be a sign of hope for the future.