A Woman in Berlin (Germany 2008, 131 min, dir: Max Faberbock, cast: Nina Hoss, Yevgeni Sidikhin)

Gone With the Wind persists because it is America’s great survival story. A Woman in Berlin is Gone With the Wind without the romance. We’d all like to behave like Scarlet and vow, “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again.”

But would the music swell and would be feel the same pride in deciding to fuck a Russian officer for a bar of soap and a bath? Germans don’t want to see the truth of war anymore than we do. When the book from which the film is taken was first published it caused such an outrage that it was withdrawn. The author declared it could only be published after her death, and then anonymously.

Anonyma (the name used for Nina Hoss’s unnamed character) is a high-styled photojournalist as World War Two is closing in on Berlin. The Russian are racing in from the East and the city is about to fall. But the music plays on and the dancers do no cease their step until brutality devours them like a beast.

Death in the streets is graphically detailed with drunken Russian soldiers looting and killing. Anonyma and the others are grabbed and raped repeatedly. The lucky ones are left alive and retreat to an empty apartment house where they seek shelter from the chaos outside. Anonyma is pretty enough and lucky enough to catch the eye of a Russian officer. He decides to make her his mistress.

Up to this point we can see Scarlet dressing in her only gown, gratefully accepting the offer of a bar of soap and a bath in exchange for her favors. What happens next is what caused the outrage against the book. She falls in love with him. We all want to be Scarlet, but if she fell in love with a Yankee, audiences would have thrown Coca Cola bottles at the screen.

When her lover receives new orders to leave Berlin, she is left as well. Other women spit at her and shun her as a whore of the conquerors. It has been three-quarters of a century since Margaret Mitchell published her fairy tale about a woman’s survival in the War Between the States. It is time we give up our fairy tales and see the reality of war’s consequences. Survival is not for sissies.