Lore (2012, Dir. Clare Shortland, Germany/Australia/UK) (Cert: 15) ***

As the Third Reich crumbles, a family of Germans living out in the wilderness of the Black Forest face uncertainty. When the mother (Ursina Lardi) leaves the children (seemingly to give herself up to the Allied forces taking Germany), the eldest child, Lore (Rosendahl) takes charge and travels with her siblings across Germany towards Hamburg.

Co-produced by the Australian film industry and directed by an Australian filmmaker (as well as being partly funded from the UK) Lore is a distinctly German take on the final days of Nazism. This is far from the first film tackle the subject and there have been better examples of this story (such as Downfall (2004)) but it does approach the subject matter on a more personal level and is focused more on the psyche of a character for whom this world of fascism and anti-Semitism is all she’s ever known. Needless to say it makes for a bleak viewing and the implications and hints towards character motivations are often so subtle they cause moments of a frustrating lack of clarity. This film may hold more significance for German audiences than non-German ones and the film does have an interesting visual side with a dilapidated picture of rural Germany, but, as mentioned before, there are other films on similar subject matter that outclass this.

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