Country: Germany / Norway
Movie Review: Germany’s submission for the 86th Academy Awards, “Two Lives” is the second fictional feature by Georg Maas, focusing in the story of Katrine Evensen-Myrtal, an evasive yet affecting Norwegian-German woman who dedicates herself to her husband, daughter, and mother. The place is Bergen, Norway, and the year is 1990, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Katrine (Juliane Kohler) and her mother, Ase (Liv Ullman, former Ingmar Bergman’s muse), were victims of the famous Nazi program known as Lebensborn, being the unique case that both mother and daughter were found. A young lawyer is trying to persuade them to testify in court against Norwegian Government for having cooperated with the Germans. By refusing to testify in the case, Katrine will call the attention for her secret past as Stasi agent, compromising the happiness and stability of her family life. “Two lives” was well structured, as well as visually representative of the time and place where the story occurs. There were occasions where a narrative impasse was noticeable, with the revelations near the end becoming very welcome in a time where impatience seemed to start taking care of me. Gladly, the interest and satisfaction increased as the story proceeded to its sad conclusions. Performances were extremely credible, in a sober thriller that exposes the discomfiture of seeing dark secrets exposed to the ones we truly love.
