Berlin '36 (2009)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

The title of Kaspar Heidelbach's "Berlin '36" gives away basically already what this is about: the Berlin Olympic Games 1936. Well, this is only true to some extent. It is really more about the fate of high jumper Gretel Bergmann (Karoline Herfurth) before the actual event. She is a Jew, which leads to difficulties in terms of her getting nominated for the team. However, it was really the Nazis who got her back from London in order to show the world that religion does not matter in the grand picture when it comes to an event like the Olympic Games. Of course, it is all make-believe and in the end, she is not allowed to participate. But this film is also about a second athlete, Marie Ketteler, who is brought in by the Nazis to take Bergmann's place in the squad. She is played by Sebastian Urzendowsky and I must say, this is also my biggest criticism about this film. Maybe, it was because I knew the actor before, but I never saw something in him that people would think he is a woman. The long hair and not too masculine face weren't too bad for the role, but his deep voice destroyed it all. Apart from that, I think he is not a particularly gifted actor.Luckily, the other male (older) actors made up for this. Thomas Thieme is great fun as always and his reaction when he reads Ketteler's medical file is priceless. Axel Prahl is reliable and likable as usual and Robert Gallinowski was a positive surprise, played his part very well. Back to Thieme's character, I also liked the scene, in which he shakes hands with the athletes, not only because he ignores Bergmann, but also because of how he lacks all enthusiasm when he shakes Ketteler's hand, the enthusiasm that he had before when he shook the hands of the non-degenerate athletes. Ketteler is basically just a tool for him to get rid off Bergmann, but he still somewhat despises her for her imperfection.All in all, this 6-year-old movie was a pretty good watch. It is not historically accurate on many occasions (for example the names except Bergmann), but it takes on a truly interesting subject and proves that it is still possible, after all these years and films, to bring something new to the screen in terms of Nazi Germany. Bergmann, by the way is still alive today, over 100 years old in 2015. I recommend this film. It's a good mix of political thriller and historical context with smart dramatic elements. If you want to see a bit of a boys' version, I suggest you check out "Napola" about a couple boxers training for the Olympic Games 1936 as well. But back to this one: I can totally see why Herfurth is among the most famous German actresses right now. She plays her part well and carries this film nicely despite her young age.

There hasn't been a lot done in movies about the 1936 Berlin Olympics - at least not that I've come across. Those Games, of course, are now famous as the Nazi Games. Hitler and the Nazis, having come to power three years before, were determined to use the Games to demonstrate "Aryan" superiority. What most people remember about those Games is that theory being blasted out of the water by African-American sprinter Jesse Owens. This movie deals not so much with the Olympic Games themselves, but with Germany's preparations for the Olympics, and in particular with the selection of the German Ladies High-Jump team.The United States was threatening a boycott of these Games if German Jewish athletes weren't allowed to compete for Germany. On the one hand, the Nazis had no intention of allowing Jews to represent Germany; on the other hand, the Nazis couldn't risk an American boycott of the their Games. So they developed an elaborate ruse. A Jewish female high jumper (Gretel Bergmann) had emigrated to Britain and become British champion. She's "convinced" to return to Germany to train with the German team. With her family still in Germany, she has little choice but to comply or have them face the consequences. As she's told, this is also the perfect opportunity to expose the myth of Aryan superiority. All she has to do is win - except that she's not going to be allowed to do that. To make sure, the Nazis plant a ringer on the team: a young man raised by his mother as a girl. Named Maria Ketteler, he/she and Gretel develop a bond and a friendship, each of them being forced by the Nazis to do something they'd rather not be doing. Gretel would have preferred to stay in London; Maria wants to end the charade her mother has forced her to live all her life and simply live as a man. The character of Maria is problematic. That wasn't her real name. Her real name was Dora Ratjen, and it wasn't simply that her mother wanted a girl and so raised a boy as a girl. Dora was born with ambiguous genitalia. I don't know why the producers of this would have chosen to change those facts.This movie isn't as harsh as some movies about Nazi Germany. The overt prejudice against Jews isn't as violent as we usually see (of course, the Olympics were held before Krystallnacht and before the Holocaust had begun in earnest.) Gretel isn't liked by her "team-mates." She's isolated, she's lonely, German officials will come up with any excuse to prevent her from competing, and yet she'll be forced to train and go through the motions as if she might. She becomes a definite object of sympathy. You do feel sorry for her. Actress Karoline Herfurth brought forth that sympathetic reaction very well. You also feel for Maria (Sebastian Urzandowski). None of this is his/her fault. Their bond, after Gretel gets over the shock of discovering Maria's "secret," is real and understandable. Nothing really tragic happens to either of them. In that sense this isn't a "Holocaust" movie. Both survived the "Holocaust." But it's a sad movie of two people caught up in an insane system in an insane country in an insane period of time.As the movie ends, we're introduced to the real Greta Bergmann (this is a true story) who answers a few questions about the Games and about Maria. Greta and her family emigrated to New York before the War. Maria was discovered to be a man, but survived the War, unfortunately becoming a recluse, finally dying in 2008. This is a well done story of a little known event in Nazi history. It's neither brutal nor violent. Instead, it's interesting but sad. For those interested in the era, it should be seen. (9/10)

Berlin 36 (2009), is a German film directed by Kaspar Heidelbach. As the name implies, the action is set before and during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany.German politicians were caught on the horns of a dilemma--some of their finest athletes were Jewish. The Nazis would rather lose a medal for Germany than admit that Jewish athletes could be among the world's greatest.When it became obvious that German Jews were being systematically kept out of the competition, progressive U.S. citizens called for a U.S. boycott of the Olympics. However, Avery Brundage, the U.S. Olympic President, would have none of this. Not only did he want U.S. athletes to compete, which at least is understandable, but he was a known Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite. (Not just my opinion--check out his Wikipedia entry.) So, the problem was solved by having the Germans give assurances that German Jewish athletes could, indeed, compete at the Olympics, and then making sure that they didn't actually compete.Caught in this sick, volatile situation is Gretel Bergmann (played by the lovely Karoline Herfurth) who is certainly the best woman high jumper in Germany, and possibly the best in the world. The Nazis were determined that she would not compete, and one method they chose to assure this was to bring onto the team an untried, but gifted, athlete named Marie Ketteler. Both Gretel and Marie understand what's going on, but they nonetheless form an unlikely friendship and alliance. In the ghastly situation present in Nazi Germany in 1936, whether or not an athlete competes in the high jump may seem extremely trivial. However, the movie gives a good sense of how thoroughly Naziism pervaded the entire fabric of pre-war Germany, and how readily non-Germans with fascist tendencies played along with Hitler's plans.Incidentally, although this is not portrayed in the film, Brundage also saw to it that some American Jewish athletes were removed from Olympic competition because "he didn't want to embarrass the Nazis." He was just a great all-around sportsman. We saw this film at the wonderful Rochester Jewish Film Festival. Some of the effects of the large-scale stadium productions will be lost on the small screen, but the intense parts of the film will work well on DVD.For some reason, this movie has earned a ridiculously low IMDb average of 6.5. Hard to believe and, to me, inexplicable. Ignore the rating. Find this film and see it!

With Singapore hosting our first Olympics event, albeit the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, perhaps it is apt for us to reflect upon the importance of the values and spirit promoted by the Games toward the notion of Swifter, Higher, Stronger, because not always were the Games free from influence other than sports excellence and the triumph of human determination and to see how perseverance and training paid off.Based on a true story and set in 1936 Berlin, where Germany is on the cusp of holding their first Olympic Games in the summer, Berlin 36 tells of how politics managed to get embroiled into sports, no thanks to Adolf Hitler sweeping into power some three years before, and taking the Games as a platform to further his party's propaganda, extending his prejudice and discrimination toward the Jews in not allowing them to compete under the German flag. This of course does not bode well for the United States, and to appease them in order to stave off a potential boycott by the US and her allies, the Germans had to pass off a show to rescind their decision for the Jews exclusion. This means that the world's best high jumper of the time, the German Jew Gretel Bergmann (Karoline Herfurth) had to be "persuaded" to return to the Fatherland for representation and competition.This drama directed by Kasper Heidelbach not only tackles the issue of the kind of extreme discrimination and belief in the superiority of the Aryan race, but poses a more thought- provoking examination at the macro level issues as faced by Gretel in tackling and addressing prejudices from all angles, being the lone athlete in a training village, treated like an outcast by fellow citizens. She finds it near impossible to show love and pride in being able to represent her country that doesn't love her back, what more to earn honours for it? Like any authoritarian regime, they function on the basis of threats not only to self but family, and is able to shape outcomes as desired through silence, and misdirection.And the worst was of course in hand-picking Marie Ketteler (Sebastian Urzendowsky) to become Gretel's chief rival both in training and the eventual competition, not that there was any intent anyway to allow Gretel to make it all the way to the Olympics proper. Marie is seemingly able to challenge Gretel one on one, which is quite expected should you read the synopsis or know the background of Marie's deep, dark secret. Like Gretel, Marie was also forced to be in the limelight to do as told, and deviations to the established plan was going to be frowned upon severely. What once began as a cold rivalry soon paves the way toward firm friendship, as both Gretel and Marie find themselves under the same circumstances of being played as puppets, and both harbour hopes of somehow being able to break away from the bonds that shackle them.It is precisely the chemistry between the cast, especially the leads, that pull this film off, in providing an engaging and engrossing premise for their cooperation/competition. Production values for this historical story is kept high, and also provided room to boast some fantastically designed sets and effects used to recreate 1930s Germany, as well as the impressively recreated Stadium used for the Games featuring huge Zeppelins flying overhead. These money shots at the finale will put you smack in the middle of the propaganda festivities where important decisions will be made by the leading two athletes, and one can imagine just how the actual mood and feel would be like on the streets and at the venue.I have a penchant for films about sports from the yesteryears, because when documented and portrayed accurately, allow the modern audience a glimpse into how the sport of today have evolved from time past. The high jump here is slightly different from the techniques and styles employed now, so that should pique your interest enough as one of the points to watch this film. There may be some quarters grumbling about how much the YOG budget is costing us, but let's not mix politics with this platform for our youths to have a go and competing with their peers representing the best from countries around the world.