OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2024 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL (In Competition)
OPENING NIGHT GALA - 2024 GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL
Featuring a captivating central performance from Babylon Berlin star Liv Lisa Fries, the hugely affecting new historical drama from multi award-winning director Andreas Dresen depicts the remarkable true story of a young German woman drawn into the anti-Nazi resistance movement during World War II.
Berlin, 1942. When the shy, heavily-pregnant Hilde Coppi (Fries) is suddenly detained by the Gestapo, she pleads ignorance to their accusations that she has aided her lover, Hans (Johannes Hegemann), in transcribing coded radio transmissions to and from Moscow. However, it appears there’s more evidence against Hilde than she anticipated, given Hans and many of the other activists involved in their group – who will become known as Die Rote Kapelle (“The Red Orchestra”) – have also been arrested.
Compelled to give birth in custody, Hilde is informed that her child may be taken from her, but her kindness and quiet resolve wins over a prison nurse, enabling mother and son to remain together. As Hilde awaits her sentencing, she reminisces about her involvement with Hans and their joyful romance, the most beautiful summer of her life…
Anchored by the extraordinary Fries, who perfectly embodies a type of everyday heroine driven only by decency and what’s in her heart, Dresen’s compelling and humanistic film echoes the themes and impact of The Lives Of Others, as a war drama that – without depicting a single bullet being fired - speaks more eloquently about courage than many battle-heavy spectacles. FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE is a deeply moving and inspiring achievement.