Anonyma, A Woman in Berlin

Anonymna, A Woman in Berlin, is Russian-German collaborative film made with the help of Poles, since the film was shot in Poland. It focus is on the tense interactions between the conquering Soviet army forces and the women, children, some older men, just before and after Hiter ends the defense of Berlin by committing suicide. Thereafter, a high ranking German officer formally surrenders and orders any remaining Nazi soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender. (There fate was a stint at a labor camp in Siberia, where many perished.) The Russians are all enthusiasm, buoyed by their victory, ready to play with the defeated Germans left behind--women, children, old men--like a cat with a mouse---sometimes indeed just play, at other times torment, that is, rape, and even kill. A few of the Russians are eager to personally prolong the war, exacting vengeance on whomever happens to be caught in their grasp.

In defense, the German women try to latch on to one Russian soldier, often an officer, who offers protection to the woman, not allowing any other men access to touch her. The hero of the movie is one such woman who after being raped several times seeks out a protector. Her first one proves a lady's man, a Don Juan, who preoccupies himself with pursuing all the women who catch his eye. The second one, however, the Lieutenant proves to be a thinker, an idealist, a beleiver in the Soviet cause, who plays piano, speaks Russian, and actually stations a guard, a burly Mongol soldier to prevent any other suitors from approaching his woman.

Others around the lietenant are troubled: the nurse who treated his wound in the firefight in the street and building feels displaced and jealous by the attention the lietenant gives the enemy woman. The second lieutenant looks askance at his superior officer's dalliance. These two officers are true believers, completely given to the communist cause--neither cheers or dances or cavorts like wild as news of Berlin's surrender by the Nazi's sets off a party. The nurse and second lieutenant sense there is something more, too intimate, in the exchanges. Loving the enemy or the enemy's wives--that's unthinkable, but that's what happens to the lieutenant.

Thus the true believer, who also seems like his mind is somewhere else, gazing into the future, making plans for groups, for others, for the nation, but not himself meets the former journalist who lived in European capitals and uncritically accepted and then supported Hitler's grand plans of conquests.

Another strand of the story is how the woman cope with their loss of integrity and self-respect. They greet one another or a man asks--How Often? and the unmentioned word here is "rape." The best coping strategy that develops is to attach oneself to one man, usually an office, and then all other men will be off limits you.