Drei Schwestern Made In Germany (4½ Stars)

At the moment my blog has more readers than at any time since I started it last year. In particular I'm getting a lot of readers from Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Egypt. Just as Ramadan has started. Is it a coincidence? I think not. Moslems all over the world are getting bored and irritated during this month long fast, so they're seeking some distraction on the Internet. Good for you. Forget about religion for a few hours and read about films.

"Drei Schwestern" is a German film not available in English. Even if it were made available in other countries, dubbed or subtitled, it would be difficult to understand. It tells a story that is so typically German that foreign viewers who don't understand the background would be confused.

It's 1947 in a small Swabian town. The Americans are occupying the area. The local black market is being run by Jacob, a Polish Jew. Technically he would be considered a gangster, but the film portrays him very positively. The three sisters in the title are Nora, Freya and Gudrun Sonnenberg, the daughters of the town's previous mayor. Freya is engaged to marry an American colonel, and it's obvious that it's not out of love but in order to escape the German post-war poverty. The oldest sister, Nora, is a very fine and noble person. Freya is egoistic and self-centered. Gudrun is the family slut.

That's the background. All I can say is that the film is magnificent. Although it's a comedy, it's a snapshot of German history. Germans who watch this, especially Swabians, will laugh at themselves and their parents. I strongly recommend this film to my German readers, and maybe if you aren't German but speak the language you might find it entertaining, even if you can't understand the humour. An almost perfect film, I just subtracted half a star because it fizzles out at the end rather than coming to a dramatic conclusion.