Review of Lore (2012) by Rose B — 01 Feb 2013

Australian screenwriter and director Cate Shortland`s second feature film which she co-wrote with British screenwriter Robin Mukherjee, is an adaptation of one out of three stories in a novel called "The Dark Room" from 2001 by English author Rachel Seiffert. It premiered at the 59th Sydney Film Festival in 2012, was screened in the Special Presentations section the 37th Toronto International Film Festival in 2012 and is a UK-Germany-Australia co-production which was shot on five locations in Germany and produced by producers Benny Drechel, Liz Watts, Paul Welsh and Karsten Stöter. It tells the story about a fourteen-year-old girl named Hannelore Dressler and her four younger siblings who lives in Germany in the mid-1940s with their mother Mitte and their father Vati who are Nazi sympathizers. After hearing an announcement on the radio about the death of Adolf Hitler, Vati and Mitte decides to turn themselves in to the allied forces and Mitte tells her eldest daughter that she has to escape with her siblings and find a way to get to Hamburg.

Distinctly and subtly directed by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland who made her directorial debut "Somersault" (2004) eight years ago, this finely tuned fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the protagonist`s point of view, draws an incisive and instantly intriguing portrayal of a refugee`s long journey with her sister and three brothers through a country stricken by poverty and chaos after the collapse of it`s facist regime and her relationship with a young man named Thomas whom is also on the run. While notable for it`s naturalistic and poignantly atmospheric milieu depictions, masterful cinematography by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, sterling production design by production designers Jochen Dehn and Silke Fischer, fine costume design by costume designer Stefanie Bieker and brilliant use of colors, this character-driven, narrative-driven and somewhat romantic voyage depicts an in-depth study of character and contains a great score by German-born British composer Max Richter.

This historic, humane, tangible and nonjudgemental coming-of-age drama which was chosen as Australia`s submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 and where adulthood sneaks up on an adolescent girl and has her confronted with her inherent belives, examines themes like family relations, quilt, war, survival, national crises, sexual awakening and loss of innocence, is set in Germany during the end of the Second World War and is impelled and reinforced by it`s cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, esoteric characters, cinematic poetry and visual grace, fine editing by film editor Veronika Jenet, and the memorable acting performances by German actress Saskia Rosendahl in her debut feature film role and German actor Kai Malina. A psychological, mysterious, cinematographic and accomplished narrative feature where a period in time is credibly reinvented and historical events are placed into a context that envisages new perspectives.