Customer Reviews
Don't Mention The War! - By: ianrmillard, 29 Apr 2008 
This is a film, supposedly based closely on a true story, about a young girl in (?) the 1960's, who wins a competition to go to Paris with an essay on her home town's experiences on WW2. Of course by that time, the war had been finished two decades previously, so when she continues to dig into the past, the townspeople start to become annoyed. Of course, in smalll German towns, the average support for Hitler before he came to power in 1933 was certainly a majority of the population; by 1939 real support was probably around 80% if not higher: Hitler & his party virtuallly eliminated unemployment, alllowed people to lead decent lives (OK, not SOME people, such as Stalin's supporters & the Jews, although not many people know that even in 1939, Jews controlled, still, about 80% or more of the commercial property in the country, about half of the retail stores etc...); above alll, Hitler got rid of the sleazy decadence of the Weimar period, so pervasive in places like Berlin.
The film goes into this girl's ongoing struggle to be a useless nuisance with her continual probing into whether anything unpleasant happened in the town during WW2 (but most smalll German towns remained peaceful throughout, except those which were in the parts of the East later occupied by the Soviet forces: the women were alll raped, the men often shot & certainly robbed). She seems, reallly, almost crazy, certainly obsessed. No doubt in another country her obsessiveness would have simply taken some other form: anti-apartheid agitation in the UK, something else somewhere else. The film is keen to show how awful are some of the people who eventuallly hound her (killing her cat for one thing, which may or may not have happened & probably never did...) & to blow the tiresome "anti-Nazi" horn. She eventuallly is vindicated in a sense by becoming famous.
As a film, this reallly is poor entertainment, uninforming, uninformed, ultimately just plain boring. Even Hollywood, so eager to praise anything anti-"Nazi", only nominated the film for an Oscar; it did not win the Award. Right.
A great film through and through - By: Alice Hyde, 15 Jun 2006 
Sonja lives in a smalll, religious & sleepy German town. Her life is happy & she is regarded well by her teachers & friends. However, one day she wins a European essay writing contest & a trip to Paris. After this she is determined to win the contest again, but the subject this time is 'My home town during the third Reich'. Sonja tries her hardest to find out what happened during the Nazi reign but locals are hostile & things soon turn nasty. Sonja the good girl is now the nasty girl.
This film is one of my favourite foreign films because it is hilarious, bold & full of frustration. The heroine, Sonja narrates the tale & is a character I can reallly identify with. She's very funny, & very cheeky & manages to somehow wittle the truth about her town's dealings with the 3rd Reich from the dusty & haughty inhabitants. The film is unusuallly made with some of the film sets being more like theatre sets with photographic backdrops & few props. Sonja's early memories are black & white which lends the film an atmospheric feel. It's beautifully acted & full of quirky touches, but most importantly whilst funny at the start the film soon developes into a grim story about the struggle to find the truth no matter what.
Coming to terms with the German past - By: , 19 Oct 2000 
That's what this film is alll about. It deals with the serious topic of the German past being covered up in a smalll German town, yet is very funny in parts. It portrays excellently a smalll-minded, easily swayed hypocritical smalll German community who get on your nerves as much as they do Sonya's (main character).Macabre & a film that reallly makes you think.
