"Tage des Sturms", which means "Stormy Days", is a German television film from 2003, so this one is getting closer to its 20th anniversary now and maybe it already happened depending on when you read this review. Even if it is no romance (and even less comedy) film at its core, this one runs for pretty much exactly 1.5 hours, minimally under, justg like the vastg majority of German small screen releases. I will not talk too much about director Freundner and writers Honert and Loest. I just want to say that nobody from the trio really has a body of work that oozes creativity and class that makes you curious enough about their collaboration for this movie. I must say I already struggle a bit with the title. Maybe it is just subjective, but to me it sounds as if it is from some cringeworthy Rosamunde Pilcher or Inga Lindström film. They could have picked something better here for sure, something that also indirectly does the story justice because the title they actually went for could be used for almost every non-comedy movie in the history of films. So yeah, this is where the struggles begin already. This is a film that plays after World War II in the early days of the GDR, so there is a great deal of focus on politics here and the fact that German history, especially with focus on East Germany, is a subject that always attracts very established actors. The cast here is on a level that you rarely see for television, although it must be said that Wotan Wilke Möhring for example as far from the level of popularity he has right now as he is probably among Germany's most famous actors and he was very young back then still. Peter Sodann, now in his 80, was already a bit of an institution when it comes to television films. Thekla Carola Wied was also fairly famous and easy to identify, but I always thought she was pretty overrated if I am not mistaking her for anybody else right now. And finally Franziska Petri, who also has really solid recognition value, but is an actress that does very little for me most of the time, although that is probably at least partially subjective and maybe you like her more.
The crucial event here is the people rising up very early in history already against the GDR regime. This is based on real events and happens in the city of Bitterfeld and this was really an interesting background as I must say I never heard about it and it also was not part of history classes at school for me here in Germany, which I find a bit sad. What is also sad is that the historic context and developments feel rushed in and clearly are neglected and a bit for the sake of it in the face of all the less relevant parts. This mostly refers to the romance story between Möhring's and Petri's characters that did almost nothing for me. Sodann has an okay moment here and thete, but i still felt he was a bit wasted. What I liked was that they kept the focus and elaborations on the Nazi years down to a minimum because this is not what the film was about. But what the film actually is about, namely the really early years of the GDR could have deserved a better elaboration too. It never feels as much at the center of the story as it should be. With that I am also talking about the moment in which we have one character being shot and killed by those inside the house the demonstrators are trying to gain control over. Really shocking moment and it also came a bit out of nowhere if we take a look at what the characters inside were exactly saying before this tragedy. In any case, the killing ended the revolt because nobody else was ready to die for the cause. And the SED (re)gains control and this is the beginning of what people nowadays refer to as the "Unrechtsstaat" DDR/GDR. The film does not really make a political statement or at least none one that is too much on one side of the scale, but tries to depict events and stay relatively neutral. I liked that, also that they were not going for forced happy endings or so and that the one character who comes closest to beiing called a main antagonist also has shades that show he is not a tyrant by any definition. The time and place just did not offer too much happiness and positivity though. It was the train entering the tunnel in which it stayed for over 30 years till the light at the end of the tunnel became visible. So the ending was good too, as sobering and bleak as it was. Sadly, there were nonetheless many scenes and long sequences on several occasions that added nothing of value and creativity to this movie. There never was really any doubt for me that I have to give this film a thumbs-down, even if it is not (too often) on failure territory. I still say that you should watch something else instead. The only really good thing to draw from this film is to take a deeper look into what exactly happened back then. The production values are too low otherwise and this already becomes painfully visible when we see an old photo of Sodann's character and you can clearly see that they just edited his head on somebody else's body. This is how little effort is included here. Consequently, you should skip the watch this time.
The crucial event here is the people rising up very early in history already against the GDR regime. This is based on real events and happens in the city of Bitterfeld and this was really an interesting background as I must say I never heard about it and it also was not part of history classes at school for me here in Germany, which I find a bit sad. What is also sad is that the historic context and developments feel rushed in and clearly are neglected and a bit for the sake of it in the face of all the less relevant parts. This mostly refers to the romance story between Möhring's and Petri's characters that did almost nothing for me. Sodann has an okay moment here and thete, but i still felt he was a bit wasted. What I liked was that they kept the focus and elaborations on the Nazi years down to a minimum because this is not what the film was about. But what the film actually is about, namely the really early years of the GDR could have deserved a better elaboration too. It never feels as much at the center of the story as it should be. With that I am also talking about the moment in which we have one character being shot and killed by those inside the house the demonstrators are trying to gain control over. Really shocking moment and it also came a bit out of nowhere if we take a look at what the characters inside were exactly saying before this tragedy. In any case, the killing ended the revolt because nobody else was ready to die for the cause. And the SED (re)gains control and this is the beginning of what people nowadays refer to as the "Unrechtsstaat" DDR/GDR. The film does not really make a political statement or at least none one that is too much on one side of the scale, but tries to depict events and stay relatively neutral. I liked that, also that they were not going for forced happy endings or so and that the one character who comes closest to beiing called a main antagonist also has shades that show he is not a tyrant by any definition. The time and place just did not offer too much happiness and positivity though. It was the train entering the tunnel in which it stayed for over 30 years till the light at the end of the tunnel became visible. So the ending was good too, as sobering and bleak as it was. Sadly, there were nonetheless many scenes and long sequences on several occasions that added nothing of value and creativity to this movie. There never was really any doubt for me that I have to give this film a thumbs-down, even if it is not (too often) on failure territory. I still say that you should watch something else instead. The only really good thing to draw from this film is to take a deeper look into what exactly happened back then. The production values are too low otherwise and this already becomes painfully visible when we see an old photo of Sodann's character and you can clearly see that they just edited his head on somebody else's body. This is how little effort is included here. Consequently, you should skip the watch this time.
