With Shortland's new movie Berlin Syndrome just out, I urge readers to see her previous effort, quite brilliant, grimly memorable, and cruelly under-watched.In general terms, there should be a 50-year moratorium on WWII movies, but every so often you get a Downfall or Son of Saul or Lore that completely breaks the mould.

This review contains spoilers. If you have not seen the film then please don't read this review.My thoughts after the movie: I think the movie is about how everything Lore has been told to believe has been a lie. I think "Thomas" was not a Jewish survivor but someone on the run. I think he may have worked at the camp and therefore had stolen the ID of a real Jewish victim. He may have even given himself the tattoo. The signs pointing to him not being an actual refugee are: 1) we first encounter him at that chicken farm. A woman had been raped and murdered and the egg shells leading from that crime scene lead to "Thomas". He had been hiding there. I think he raped that woman. 2) When he sexually assaults Lore, he does that in front of photos of the victims of the holocaust. A normal survivor would be sickened and would not want anything to do with a German girl. 3) He follows them and it is in his interest to be seen with the group so that not to raise any suspicions. 4) For a holocaust survivor he is remarkably in good physical shape. He is resourceful. 5) He is aware that all the bridges have been destroyed. The German army destroyed the bridges to that the Americans would be delayed. A prisoner at a Concentration Camp wouldn't have known that. 6) He is too sexually interested in Lore. She calls him with anti-Semitic insults and he is not bothered 7) he escapes when he loses his papers. He was probably SS and using every trick to escape 8) One of the young boys had taken out the photo of their SS father. "Thomas" was close by. he did not get bothered by it. 9) He wanted to be under cover and under the radar. He was a Nazis and he was on the runLore sees all the lies at the end and everything clicks for her and that is why she breaks those figurines because she realises everything has been a lie and therefore she believes that Germans murdered Jews and she has had enough it. She doesn't want to be part of those beliefs. She is sickened by it.

I absolutely love this movie. Its one of those drawn out and action over words movie (or in other words, "analyzing" movie) , so you have to paid attention. I'm glad i found it Netflix. The movie was intense. It made me question how people we label as "bad" think of us. Also, the "staring match" that was going on between the two main characters was indescribable. I want to said that it was wrong what was going on with them, considering she was suppose to be 14. BUT, i had hope there was a happy ending. However, I still love the ending, way more realistic and tragic. After watching the movie, I was "hooked" for days. All I thought about was LORE. I searched for anything I could find out about LORE. I didn't want it to be over. Especially, with the unanswered questions (who is Thomas?). BUT i gotta confessed those questions made me love it more. I'm so upset that I can't find the alternate ending. Supposedly, it's not available in some countries.

I missed this film when it came out and just found it in the local library on DVD. The most interesting and thought provoking films about the Nazi time seem to come out of German speaking countries fifty or sixty years after the fact and I was surprised to read that it was actually an Australian film and the director was Australian, but from the credits I learned that it was cooperation. You have to see this film several times to get it all and even then many scenes are open to interpretation as much is only shown in images without words. This film shows how children get indoctrinated with the beliefs of their parents before the time they are able to form their own judgment. Racism is taught, it does not come natural. It also shows that an authoritarian education produces people who follow orders without questioning them. What is shown above all is that people are not willing to give up on a dream. Hitler created this dream of Germany being the greatest country on earth with the most powerful military and that there will be a final victory. When instead of the final victory the ultimate disaster happened ,they were just not willing to let the dream go.The lead character Lore goes on a difficult journey from teenager to adult when she is suddenly forced to be the head of the family of five children struggling their way through the ruined Germany from South to North through the different zones now occupied by the US, Russia, Britain and France. The parents who obviously were high ranking Nazis took the easy way out and abandoned the children. Here in the States nobody since the Civil war experiences the aftermaths of a lost war. All wars are fought far away and only the relatives of the dead or wounded soldiers have to deal with the aftermaths of war while the general population does not have to bear the consequences of the decisions their leaders made. No bombed out cities, no hunger, no rapes by the enemy soldiers, no fear of being imprisoned, no guilt feelings and no questioning of their own or other's actions.This film gives a very accurate picture of the postwar Germany and I am qualified to say so as in a way I was the little baby Peter in this film. I was born in January 1945 in Berlin and my parents had to flee to the Black Forest when the Russians invaded Berlin. I spent my first year of life on the road together with my seven year old brother and my parents ,who were starved to skeletons, selling all the family jewelry and silver for food along the way. There are no pictures of me as a baby and all I ever heard of my birth was that my mother was scared to death during the whole pregnancy because Berlin was bombed all the time. Like nearly all Germans of my generation I hate war. I do not know any young boy my age who entered military service, they all chose civil service instead when they were drafted. Of course I was too little to remember my first year, but I remember very well that nobody talked about the war when I grew up. Even the teachers in school managed somehow to omit this subject in history classes. I grew up in a society who did not practice racism. Only when I moved to the US did I learn what racism looks like. I also grew up with friends who came from large families and at the time I thought that my parents had only two children because they married later in life. Much later I realized that these families with five or six children were following Hitler's population program to produce as many children of the "Arian" race as possible. What was very interesting about this film was also that people did not like Americans, I do not remember that, I grew up as an European and America was so far away that it did not concern me. . I am so glad that many people in this forum recognize what a powerful film this is. The only very small critique I have is that the people the children meet in the Black Forest would not speak High German, having grown up in this area it just felt so wrong, everybody speaks dialect. I thought the acting was outstanding , I was already familiar with the actor who played Thomas from the " The White Ribbon. " which is another excellent movie showing how Germans got to be the way they were during the time leading to WWII. My compliments to the director I will make sure I will see all her films in future.