01
Marianne and Juliane
Why this pick
A formally restrained, deeply intimate German reckoning with postwar inheritance, seen through sisters whose private loyalties and political wounds cannot be separated.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1980 2h 2m DEU
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Germany Pale Mother
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Germany Pale Mother, try these.
01
02
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Why this pick
Its unsentimental portrait of a woman rebuilding a life amid Germany’s ruins shares the original’s blend of domestic experience, historical violence, and bitterly elegant social observation.
03
The Ascent
Why this pick
A severe, spiritually charged war drama that approaches violence through moral damage and human faces rather than spectacle, with comparable emotional gravity.
04
Phoenix
Why this pick
This cool, haunting postwar chamber drama turns German historical devastation into an intensely personal story of identity, memory, and an impossible marriage.
05
The Nasty Girl
Why this pick
Its stylized, sharply political examination of communal denial and Nazi-era complicity makes a fitting companion to a film concerned with how ordinary lives carry national trauma.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
In the 1930s Lene, a German woman, and the only dark-haired sibling in a family of seven sisters, is seen by Hans. Hans's friend Ulrich is a member of the Nazi party which initially makes Lene reluctant to see Hans, but after ascertaining that Hans is not a Nazi she agrees to continue seeing him. The two eventually marry. On Lene's birthday she learns that Hans has been conscripted to fight in Poland because he is a low-level bureaucrat who isn't part of the party, while Ulrich has been spared for the time being. In Poland, Hans murders innocent civilians and has a hard time adjusting to war, like many other soldiers. When he returns on leave he and Lene conceive a child, Anna, who is born during an air raid.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Eva Mattes
Helene
Fritz Lichtenhahn
Onkel Bertrand
Ernst Jacobi
Hans
Angelika Thomas
Lydia