Die Mauer - Berlin '61 (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

Not just another Wall film, but sadly it doesn't make too much of this interesting basic idea and setting

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 18 September 2017]

"Die Mauer - Berlin '61" or "Kalter Sommer" or "Cold Summer" is an award-winning German film from 2006, so this one is already over a decade old and it is maybe the most known work by writer and director Hartmut Schoen. If you read some of the names here, especially Ferch and Berben, then you won't be surprised that this one here is a small-screen movie in fact and like so many others it deals with the time when Germany was split into 2. But interestingly enough, this is not really about the days of the Wall or the days when the Wall fell and Germany got reunited shortly afterward, but it about the year 1961 when the Wall was actually build and we find out about the split and what happens in the days before that. Or do we really? The focus on these characters is not too bad, but from the historical perspective I found it a relatively underwhelming outcome that felt for the most part as if it could have played during any other era too. I wish Germans would possess half the talent pf Hollywood when it comes to making a film that connects an individual fate to significant historical/political context like Argo did. But this approach here is only half-baked. Most of the characters are as bland as it gets and just not well-written enough to carry the story and if they went for something unusual on really few situations like Berben's character, then it was destroyed by the performance, but that should not be surprising because Berben is among the most overrated actors here in Germany. The cast is pretty solid for a television film, but that is not too surprising given the subject. But the only moments that do justice to the subject are the predictions by Axel Prahl's character that it will all be over within a few days. Other than adding a decent moment there, he was also very forgettable, but he also had neither material nor screen time to make a difference. The one thing I liked the most about the film was the ending. Finally not a forced happy ending that mocks the seriousness of the situation only to have audiences feel good, but instead they are caught like it happened so many times and this was a really accurate and courageous way to close the film. Was it depressing? Maybe, but it was also authentic and I take that any time over an unrealistic garbage happy ending. I also liked the words at the very end about how this long separations turned close ones into strangers. I just wish this film could have been as good before all that. But it wasn't and that's why I give the overall outcome a thumbs-down. The good ending alone cannot make up for all the mediocrity before that and the only ones I'd recommend the watch to here are those with really a gigantic interest in German history (films). If you do not belong to that elusive group, then you won't be missing much.