Synopsis
Berlin 36 is a 2009 German film telling the fate of Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann in the 1936 Summer Olympics. She was replaced by the Nazi regime by an athlete later discovered to be a man. The film is based on a true story and was released in Germany on September 10, 2009. Reporters at Der Spiegel challenged the historical basis for many of the events in the film, pointing to arrest records and medical examinations indicating German authorities did not learn Dora Ratjen was male until 1938.
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Cast
- Karoline HerfurthGretel Bergmann
- Sebastian UrzendowskyMarie Ketteler
- Axel PrahlHans Waldmann
- Robert GallinowskiSigfrid Kulmbach
- Thomas ThiemeHans von Tschammer und Osten
- Johann von BülowKarl Ritter von Halt
- August ZirnerEdwin Bergmann
- Maria HappelPaula Bergmann
- Franz DindaRudolph Bergmann
- Leon SeidelWalter Bergmann
Recommendations
- 60
The Hollywood Reporter
The film, well made in every way, smartly focuses on an unlikely friendship between Gretel and the athlete who ultimately replaced her -- a high jumper who was later revealed to be a man! - 60
Time Out
The burgeoning relationship between both the athletes, bonding over a kindred "otherness," is handled tastefully by director Kaspar Heidelbach, though the lack of new insights on the subject of National Socialism's wickedness ultimately reduces a well-staged film to a historical footnote. - 50
Variety
The picture sports a strong lead cast but is diminished by TV-style helming and production qualities. - 50
The New York Times
Tasteful to a fault, Berlin 36 turns real-life controversy into disappointingly tepid drama. - 50
Los Angeles Times
Whatever the facts of the case, Berlin 36 doesn't clear the bar for dramatic impact. - 25
Slant Magazine
Excepting a momentary late-film lapse into eye-rolling double-exposure tomfoolery, the film is as aesthetically bland as a film could conceivably be, the perfunctory camerawork imbuing the proceedings with an ugly, indistinctive gloss.
