Amidst the Storm

Eugenia Ginzburg (Emily Watson) is a party-loyal, dedicated university professor who is only too happy to share her passion for Russian literature with her students and colleagues. But when she becomes entangled in a web of abstruse accusations in 1937 and is eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the Siberian Gulag, her whole world comes crashing down. The poems she recites to herself and to her fellow sufferers give her strength and the will to get through the difficult time. But when she learns of the death of her son, even this last bit of strength is robbed from her. But German camp doctor Anton Walter (Ulrich Tukur), who sees in Eugenia a light in the all-dominating darkness, manages to give the broken woman new hope and a will to live - and also the long-lost ability to love.

Mitten im Sturm is based on the memoirs of writer Eugenia Ginzburg. Particularly in the first half, Dutch director Marleen Gorris (Mrs. Dalloway, The L Word) succeeds very forcefully in making the viewer feel the oppressive sense of total helplessness in which Ginzburg was trapped. When colleagues, friends and even her own husband turn on the professor and it becomes clear that any form of intelligence must give way to a mighty wall of stupidity, fear and lust for power, it makes for many a moment of intense trepidation.

The strong acting of lead actress Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves) and the well-cast supporting cast also makes for an authentic and engaging overall impression. Ulrich Tukur's gentle and restrained acting also stands out in a particularly positive way, making the slowly developing love between Eugenia and Anton quite comprehensible.

The problem that Mitten im Sturm particularly has to contend with is that the production, which is very sober in the best sense of the word at the beginning but extremely emotionally stirring, is increasingly dominated by pathos and a lack of subtlety in the final third. As a result, the whole thing noticeably loses its power and intensity, which leads to the viewer losing more and more interest in the story. Sure, the whole thing remains engaging and moving to a certain extent right up to the end, but compared to the very strong beginning, the ending, which is very emotional at its core, is rather disappointing.

Below the line, this plea for the power of the human spirit, for the power of poetry and the victory of love over the cruelties of an inhuman regime can definitely be recommended to all lovers of well-acted and solidly staged dramas. But one is left with the feeling that this film could have been much better and stronger and squanders this potential unnecessarily

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp