Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Westwind" is a German movie from 2011 and among the lesser known and lesser appreciated (by awards bodies) films by director Robert Thalheim. It runs for a bit under 90 minutes and it is another work from Germany that deals withe frequent subject of life in the GDR, or to be more precise with the subject of two young women from the GDR meeting two young men from West Germany. Their romantic approach is of course impacted crucially by the political climate briefly before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I think what I liked the most about the film are the technical aspects. Direction, cinematography and more are pretty good. The acting is okay, trhe characters were never really meant to make anything than a subtle impact I guess, so they did fine taking that into consideration and it's not a problem at all that there aren't really any stars here in the cast list, not even performers that we could consider stars here in Germany. But the big problem may have been the writing. There are basically three core components to this movie: friendship, love and history. None of these three was really elaborated on on a level that impressed me, where I would genuinely say that it was good enough quality-wise. There is an okay moment here and there and this film is far from a failure, but in terms of getting its message through I believe there was the potential for a lot more quality. Still maybe it is slightly a bit on the underseen side. It's up to personal perception if the actors seemed lackluster at times or if this was just due to the chill state of mind their characters were displaying on several occasions, especially in terms of the boys. Overall, I think, due to the main characters, this is a film that is maybe more rewarding for female audiences. It is also one of these slow films where not too much happens, which is not a problem per se, but you have to deliver in other fields then if you want to really draw in the audience. I think they came a bit short with regard to that. Maybe it would have been better if Thalheim himself would have come up with the script here like he did on some of his pretty good movies. Nonetheless, if you like romantic road movies with an ounce of historic context, you can go for the watch here. Still if you don't, then you won't be missing much. It's a close call, but I give the overall outcome of this over 5-year-old film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

Tonino In 1988, two inseparable twin sisters from DDR, Isabel and Doreen, travel outside the country for the first time. They go to the sports camp on the bank of Lake Balaton in the socialist Hungary, then a part of the Soviet block. The sisters accept a lift from two young men from Hamburg in Western Germany, and get castigated by their supervisor for communicating with "the enemy". One of the sisters gets romantically involved with one of the men. Will she abscond with him or will she stay? Director Robert Thalheim did a great job making the film very watchable and creating tension towards the end of the film. The two actresses portraying the two sisters, Friederike Becht (who appeared in "The Reader") and Luise Heyer in her first role, were terrific. I also liked Hans-Uwe Bauer as the supervisor; his take on this character is very believable.All in all, this is a great little film about the divided nation, or, if you prefer, about "the German - German problem", as the Germans themselves like to call it. Whichever countries the Soviets laid their hands on, they spread there the ideology of hate indoctrinating children with the views that all the westerners are their enemies. And this is not very different from the state ideology of Putin's Russia that brings chaos and destruction to the neighbouring countries.