The Promise [1994] (4 Stars)

This is a German film, made in 1994. Maybe a better title for the film would be "The Broken Promise", because it tells the story of a love affair unable to survive due to the cruelty of the Berlin Wall.

The story is told in four episodes, in the years 1961, 1968, 1980 and 1989. The story begins in East Berlin in December 1961, four months after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Five teenagers, three boys and two girls, plan to escape through the sewers into West Berlin. One of the boys, Konrad, decides at the last moment to stay behind and put the manhole cover back to help his friends escape. His girlfriend Sophie is among the others. They want to stay in touch, but their letters are blocked by the German secret police. They send messages via friends who visit East Berlin from the West.

Separation makes their love grow stronger. In 1968 Konrad is a highly gifted astrophysics graduate student, while Sophie works as a translator. They finally meet again in Prague. Konrad is to speak at a conference, so Sophie takes a holiday in the city. Sophie says that she loves Konrad so much that she wants to remain with him in Prague. They're caught up in the protests of the Prague Spring. They witness with their own eyes how Russian shoulders shoot the peaceful protestors. Sophie is arrested as a Western spy and sent back to West Germany. She's told that she'll never be allowed to visit any country in the Soviet block ever again. But Sophie has a lasting gift from Konrad: she's pregnant.

Can the relationship survive when the two have been forbidden to see one another ever again? Sophie's son Alexander needs a father, so she marries a French journalist. Konrad also gets married and has a daughter. His career advances over the next 12 years. He becomes a university professor. Eventually he's allowed to visit West Berlin to speak at a scientific congress. He meets his son for the first time. Over the next few months Alexander is allowed to visit East Berlin on a regular basis, without his mother.

Konrad's sister has become a church leader in East Berlin. She's a vocal opponent of the government. The secret police, the Stasi, want her to leave the country, so they ask Konrad to persuade her. When he refuses, Alexander is no longer allowed to visit him. Konrad loses his job at the university and is forced to work as a coal miner.

1989. The Wall is opened. Alexander hurries to the East to visit his father again. Together they visit Sophie. The meeting is at the same time moving and tragic. Despite being married to other people, they still have feelings for one another. They had a strong love, but the Wall has separated them for 28 years.

The film is beautifully lavish, with opulent music in the first two episodes. As the film continues the music becomes silent. The love dies, and so does the music. In truth, the love doesn't die completely, it just dies down, waiting to come back when the circumstances improve; as they do, but possibly too late. The film ends with questions left open.

The Berlin Wall was a tragedy. I spent a year in West Berlin, from 1976 to 1977, and it was all people talked about. East-West romances are a common topic for German films. Usually they're sad stories with a happy ending. "The Promise" has no happy ending. It's brutally realistic.