Rent Where Hands Touch (2018)

Interesting take on the WW2 from the German Side - Where Hands Touch review by CP Customer

An interesting film about life in Berlin in 1944 as the war starts to get closer, and the attraction of the son of a high ranking NAZI Official and a girl of mixed race parentage.  The film covers the trials of life in Berlin at that time and the absurdity that was rampant even within families.  A story that needed to be told and the cast were first rate in conveying their feelings in a time of such uncertainty.     

Very Mills & Boon, Preachy, Worthy, Self-Indulgent Vanity Project NOT based on a true story... - Where Hands Touch review by PV

In recent years, the UK has become as race-obsessed as the USA thanks to various ideologies being imported and enforced here - just watch TV to see the evidence. This has led to something of an obsession with certain themes in drama, such as racism, and also arguably overpromoted various people at the expense of others. I can think of more than few BAME writers/directors in that number and TV producers I know too (who have come through BBC/ITV BAME-only schemes). This has also benefitted women, via female-only schemes. One can only wonder at the hug amount of white male talent deliberately blocked and kept down, excluded because of what could be called 'the new racism/sexism'.

Anyway, this film claims to be a true story, In fact, as the extra 'filming of' film states, it came about as the (black female) writer/director say a photograph of a black girl in 1930s Germany. There were a few thousand though very few ended up in camps. Germany had an empire in Africa (Cameroon, Namibia etc) before the first world war and had black male workers from there - some mixed race kids resulted. Then there were others left after WWI who could not return home and they were stuck there in 1930s and until 1945. Not many though - a few thousand. The Jews had it far worse, of course.

It is actually a badly-written film with preachy on-the-nose dialogue which is often cringeworthy for being so worthy, so determined to ram home the point that 'racism is bad' and the Nazis were really mean to people not Aryan, No, really?

The events are predictable - I knew what would happen from the first scenes. The script needs trimming - a lot, by half an hour. And cartoon character Nazis need more padding too.

My fear is kids will watch or be shown this and so think a huge number of black people were persecuted by the Nazis. Not true at all as so few there.

This is good in parts; George MacKay never fails to impress but the actress paired with him in this Mills & Boon slushfest is wooden.

And I just did not believe the character arc of the father. Yes, we writers all know to ramp up the jeopardy and ensure characters go on a journey so end up different at the end of a film than at the start BUT there are ,limited. For an anti-war german veteran of WWI who is hinted to have suppported the 1944 plot against Hitler to end up, well, doing what he does (no spoilers) is absurd.

I do wonder if such a film would have been made without the tickbox diversity interest.

Instead of this, watch THE OCCUPATION also called MY NAME IS SARA (2020) - a superb film about a Jewish girl pretending to be Christian to survive in Ukraine. Or watch GENERATION WAR a superb German TV drama in parts. or maybe even Babylon Berlin

Too worthy by half and historically questionable too. 2 stars max.