Alone in Berlin - Film4

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Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson are a grieving couple

A grieving couple denounce the Nazi regime in World War Two Berlin. 3/5 stars

Devastated by the death of their soldier son at the front, working-class Germans Otto and Anna Quangel (Gleeson and Thompson) channel their grief into a series of anti-Nazi postcards, which they covertly leave in public places around 1940s Berlin.

As they throw themselves deeper into their subversive - and dangerous - campaign, dogged police detective Escherich (Daniel Brühl) steps up his attempts to catch them.

Based on a true story (subject of Hans Fallada's acclaimed 1947 novel), this well-acted drama is tonally uneven but proves gripping and quietly moving by the end. 

 

Jason Best
Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.