I once heard an old German man talk about his "childhood shadow". When Soviet troops occupied Germany, they raped German women in broad daylight, even in front of children. He said that this trauma can't be rid of for a lifetime, and it is an eternal nightmare. I saw his eyes and my heart tightened. I said I wouldn't watch Women in Berlin, but I did. The effect of this film on me was unexpected. I didn't have nightmares because of the scenes in the film, nor did I have desperate doubts about human nature because of "outrageous cruelty" (as I reflected after watching the documentary film about Nanjing), nor did I fall into feminist anger. To sum up, in the words of HR, this is not an accusation film, but a thought-provoking one. See, I mentioned this history in my blog before. When writing, I will naturally think of Nanjing. One of my questions is, why do women in the city have to be like innocent lambs? Why can't we take a violent and shocking way to resist? When the other person doesn't treat you as a living, affectionate and dignified person, you should let him know in an extreme way. The Woman in Berlin, on the other hand, answers half my questions. It shows a belief of "living" and a dignity of life itself. Let me have a feeling that "it is better to be a full house than a broken jade", which is also a kind of nobility. The protagonist is a well-educated, young and beautiful female journalist. What happened to her was the same as that of all Berlin women during the Soviet occupation of Berlin. The only difference was that some people committed suicide, some people were tortured to death, some had a nervous breakdown, and some people lived day by day, but she chose to record all this in her diary and had a strong belief that "all external injuries can't really hurt herself". I believe in writing. I think that no matter how humiliating the experience is, you can have the courage to face it, write it down and show it to the world, and you will gain a kind of dignity in yourself. In order to protect herself, she hooked up with a senior Soviet officer. The officer was an educated Soviet who could play the piano, and his wife was brutally killed by the Germans. She provided him with "services", and he guaranteed that she would not be violated again and provided scarce food. Such an extreme way of living reminds me of the situation of women for thousands of years: if you have to sell it, try to sell it to a higher level-for example, find a powerful man and conclude a profitable marriage. Many wise women in ancient times have said that there is no difference between a wife and a prostitute in essence. They are also dependent on men and have no economic freedom and personality independence. Obviously, it is the relationship between whoring and being whored, but subtle feelings gradually emerge between the heroine and senior officers. One night, she said to him, don't go. So they had a long talk all night, "we are both unhappy -- to the sky's end, we meet. We understand. What does acquaintance matter?". Seeing the way they look at each other, I know that only they can understand each other in this world. They are all orphans of war. Germany surrendered, and the officer found himself in love with the heroine and wanted to take her away. She said that the meaning of love has changed these days, but she hopes that when her husband comes back to find her, she will still be there. Sure enough, I waited for my husband who returned from the battlefield. The former Nazi soldier read his wife's diary and his self-esteem collapsed. He said, Aren't you ashamed and disgusted? She rode her bicycle crazily to find an officer, and along the way she saw butterflies in spring. The officer was transferred and was about to leave Berlin. I thought she would jump on her and ask the officer to take her away from this sad and shameful place and her husband who sprinkled salt on her wound. But I was wrong. The following sentence shocked me: Woman: Thank you. Officer: Thank me for what? Woman: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get to know you. The last side. Thank you, director, for not "black and white" to describe this sensitive history and the scars that can't be lifted, but to show both sides of human nature without affectation and taboo. I will think of The Black Book, Love in Hiroshima, The Midnight Gatekeeper, The Clouds in Paris and so on. The Nazis were notorious. Once the Nazis left, people in the occupied areas treated the so-called "spies" no more gently than the Nazis. These "traitors who have slept with the enemy" are likely to be mixed with spies who have endured humiliation for the country and the people. But people don't care about these, people's repression needs to be vented too much, and people's psychology needs to be balanced too much. What a classic shot of "the woman parades the streets illegally". At this time last year, I went to see Rabe's Diary, and saw the weak China people hiding under the Nazi flag on the big screen, avoiding the Japanese bombing. What a paradox and irony! Little boys love to watch war movies and watch people beat bad guys. But in reality, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? Once the war breaks out, the evil of human nature will be naked and exposed. Countries, politics, ideology, pros and cons, and so on can all be defined, but how to define human nature? The heroine's husband left her in disgust. She muttered that she didn't feel sad because she was too busy to clean the floor of the room and look for flowers everywhere. The image of a scarred woman looking for spring flowers in the dirty ruins shocked me again. Only when I saw this did I understand that she stayed, ostensibly for her husband, but deeply for staying at home-women and home are inseparable. Such memories, fled to the ends of the earth are impossible to escape. Even if she followed the officer to Moscow, rebuild her family and start her life, would everything really be different? Staying is a kind of resistance to shameful memories. Women are often compared to the earth. The earth is maternal, generous and merciful, and even after a bleak winter, it can still give birth to new life. Butterflies and flowers are suggesting such a faint and beautiful life. The surviving Berlin women all showed the strength of Superman. They can even laugh together and talk about the experience of being gang-raped, and greeting each other becomes: how many times? You can call it shameless and shameless. But in my eyes, this is viability, which is awesome. In South Africa's Shame, I also read about similar power. After the war, men fled, and women in Berlin faced a broken world after their nightmares. They are more flexible than their men, knowing that the old times have long passed and the new era is irresistible. Peace, forgiveness, communication, repair and reconstruction are the future. Some German men refuse the future, such as the husband of a woman in the film. It is not easy to escape the war. He can obviously choose to stay with his wife and children to live a peaceful life, but he has to choose to be exiled to Siberia with his comrades-in-arms, for the so-called honor. His wife cried and said, I was looking forward to your coming back every day when you were fighting. You finally came back, and you can't leave! But he finally committed suicide by taking poison after the German surrender. Men's fragile self-esteem The film did not portray the Soviet army as a simple animal and accuse them of the crime of dehumanizing humanity. Every Soviet who has the luck to live in Berlin has bloody memories and full of hatred. Their hearts are distorted by the tragic death of their loved ones. Even if there is a good side, they will never face the "sinful" Germans. Whether it is a crazy Soviet soldier, the heroine's husband or a family man who committed suicide, it all reflects the destructive power of men. Compared with women, it is more difficult for them to let go of hatred and self-esteem and find the power of forgiveness and reconciliation. In a sense, they are actually more vulnerable. For them, only violence is easy to violence, broken, broken, not healed, reborn! The revival of the German nation is certainly not dependent on these fleeing men. This country has become beautiful again, and there must be the power of Eve in it. The theme of "suffering and atonement" comes from the Bible. When I saw the heroine silently bear everything, I couldn't help thinking of this theme. As if she was alone, nailed to the cross of shame, atoning for the whole nation. Reminiscent of Jin Jide's The Samaritan Girl, the body also has double meanings of shame and redemption. This is a true story. The diary of the heroine was published after the war, which caused great controversy. Some people regard it as a disgrace to the Germans, so the author banned the publication of this book in his lifetime. So the complete film is called Anonyma-Eine Frau in Berlin (unknown-a woman in Berlin).