Synopsis
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?
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Cast
- Katja RiemannLena Fischer ( 33 Jahre alt )
- Maria SchraderHannah Weinstein
- Doris SchadeLena Fischer ( 90 Jahre alt )
- Jutta LampeRuth Weinstein ( 60 Jahre alt )
- Svea LohdeRuth Weinstein ( 8. Jahre alt )
- Jürgen VogelArthur von Eschenbach
- Martin FeifelFabian Fischer
- Fedja van HuêtLuis Marquez
- Carola RegnierRachel Rosenbauer
- Plien van BennekomMarion
Recommendations
- 100
Christian Science Monitor
The movie is woven with care and complexity, again confirming von Trotta's place as one of the world's greatest female filmmakers. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
At heart a love story, Rosenstrasse benefits from strong, sympathetic performances from two actresses who play the same character at different ages. - 70
Variety
A sober, unsensationalized enactment of a Holocaust incident. Von Trotta keeps sentimentality at bay and, as a result, the film isn't as emotionally wrenching as it might have been. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Most important is the film's consistent unexpectedness. Rosenstrasse captures well not only the varying states of mind and levels of awareness in Germany during World War II but also the era's lingering effect upon its survivors. - 70
Washington Post
A modest yet moving fact-based drama. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
As a treatment of yet another unexplored corner of the Nazi nightmare, the film is revelatory; needless to say it's also heartbreaking. - 50
The A.V. Club
Von Trotta lingers for so long on the backstory and framing story that the movie's heart never comes to the fore. - 50
New York Post
Mawkish and manipulative, the film isn't worthy of its widely praised German director.
