Reviews
CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

August 19, 2024
6.0
At the very start of this documentary, we are shown a photograph of a woman staring into the camera. It's fairly unlikely she knew it was pointing at the group in which she was standing, but it was taken as the Ravensbrück concentration camp was being liberated by the Swiss Red Cross in 1945. She is quickly identified as Nadine Hwang and now director Magnus Gertten tries to piece together her story. For that, he is fortunate. She kept a series of diaries and when it falls to her grand-daughter to finally read them - with quite a degree of emotion-laden trepidation - we discover that before the war she was in a loving relationship with Nelly Mousset Vos. With the aid of photographs and the sometimes quite harrowing narration from her text, we trace the lives of these two women both before and after the horrors of the Nazi invasion. Not wishing, in any way, to trivialise this - but as a documentary it's all a bit lightweight. The story itself is one that's truly ghastly, empowering, emotional and sometimes quite shocking, but factually there is just way too much missing, and what we do have to go on and/or know is squeezed just once too often. It might actually have made for a better source as a drama, allowing some of the understandable gaps to be filled in, albeit speculatively, and leaving less scope for us to have to make our own guesses about their difficulties not just with the SS but with a society as yet unfamiliar with their candid and loving lesbianism. Much of the heavy lifting comes from the soundtrack - it turns out Nelly was quite a good singer, too - but somehow it's really only the shell of a poignant story that falls disappointingly short. It is worth watching, and the plentiful photographs and some archive footage add a little richness, but it doesn't quite deliver.

Recommendation Movies

6
Comedy
View
6
Everybody Hates Johan
Everybody Hates Johan2022
7.2
Documentary
View
7.2
The Scars of Ali Boulala
The Scars of Ali Boulala2022
7.7
Comedy
View
7.7
A Man Called Otto
A Man Called Otto2022
7.9
Action
View
7.9
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home2021
7.6
Action
View
7.6
Deadpool
Deadpool2016
8.3
Animation
View
8.3
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018
7.2
Horror
View
7.2
It
It2017
7.4
Action
View
7.4
Deadpool 2
Deadpool 22018
7.3
Action
View
7.3
Extraction
Extraction2020
8.3
Animation
View
8.3
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse2023
8.5
Comedy
View
8.5
Parasite
Parasite2019
7.4
Science Fiction
View
7.4
A Quiet Place Part II
A Quiet Place Part II2021
8
Crime
View
8
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street2013
7.4
Horror
View
7.4
A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place2018
7.7
Horror
View
7.7
Train to Busan
Train to Busan2016
8.2
Adventure
View
8.2
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame2019
8.2
Adventure
View
8.2
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War2018
7.4
Crime
View
7.4
BlacKkKlansman
BlacKkKlansman2018
7.7
Science Fiction
View
7.7
Dune
Dune2021
7.1
Comedy
View
7.1
The Nice Guys
The Nice Guys2016
© 2025 MoovieTime. All rights reserved.Made with Nuxt