Helma Sanders-Brahms’ Germany, Pale Mother is an emotionally powerful love story that has become a modern classic.  Germany 1939: Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna move in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.

Raw and visceral, Germany, Pale Mother stands as a landmark, a film that shows us war from a woman’s perspective, creating a character in Lene who is by turns brave and foolhardy, resourceful and resilient, facing a bleak future with fierce determination. Eva Mattes delivers a performance of searing intensity, indelible and unforgettable.