Director: Cate Shortland
Cast: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs, Andre Frid, Mika Seidel, Nick Holaschke, Ursina Lardi, Hans-Jochen Wagner
Running Time: 109 minutes
Synopsis: In spring 1945, the German army collapses. As the Allied forces sweep across the Motherland, five children embark on a journey which will challenge every notion we have of family, love and friendship.
Australian Cate Shortland first came to prominence with SOMERSAULT (2004), that also brought Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington to the fore. Shortland has adapted Rachel Seiffert’s ‘The Dark Room’ short story for LORE and she also directs again but, this time, powerfully explores a very different world in a devastatingly stirring Germany-set drama in the final days of World War II.
When Lore’s (Saskia Rosendahal) SS parents are taken into custody, she must lead her siblings to the safety of their grandparent’s home from the Black Forest to Hamburg, some 600 miles away, by whatever means necessary. Rosendahal’s Lore is captivatingly balanced between the strength in her convictions but also with an undoubted naïve streak in temperament, this stemming from her days as part of the foreboding Hitler Youth but as the journey continues, it’s obvious to see that influence from her incarcerated father and mother have shaped many of her ideals.
As Lore takes her younger sister Liesel (Nele Trebs), twins Gunter (Andre Frid) and Jurgen (Mika Seidel) and baby brother Peter on foot across a collapsing Germany, she encounters Thomas (Kai-Peter Malina), a young Jewish death camp survivor and although she is repeatedly sickened by his very existence, an unexplainable connection begins to grow, as Thomas helps them in desperate times and situations.
LORE explores a side of Nazi Germany that is rarely seen on screen and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw also creates such a measured mix of beauty and bleak on film, it’s impossible to not notice all sides of intention and the consequential questions this raises. You will not necessarily sympathise with Lore and her siblings but it will open your eyes to another perspective or understanding and this is daring work by Shortland. It’s also true to say that Rosendahal is a compelling young talent in the lead and plays an extremely complex character with maturity beyond her years.
LORE is consciously slow paced, and while you may not initially feel tied to the ensemble, the innocence, intelligence and explorative nature of the film is unquestionably unforgettable.
LORE is released on the 22nd February and was originally reviewed at the London Film Festival. Read the rest of our LFF coverage here.
