The Aftermath (3½ Stars)

This is a historical drama that takes place in Germany five months after the end of World War Two.

Colonel Lewis Morgan has been posted to Hamburg to help rebuild the devestated city. The place is in a mess. As he says, England dropped more bombs on Hamburg in one weekend than Germany dropped on London in the whole war. I'm not sure whether he says that with pride or with shame. He's joined by his wife Rachael.She is full of bitterness against the Germans. Their 11-year-old son was killed by a German bomb in 1942.

The British army has requisitioned a luxurious villa on the outskirts of the city that belongs to a rich architect, Stefan Lubert. His wife was killed at the end of the war, and he now lives with his teenage daughter Heike. They're expected to leave the home, but Lewis takes pity on them and says they can live upstairs. This shocks Rachael, because she doesn't want to live under the same roof as Germans. The enmity is shared by Heike, who finds it disgusting that representatives of the enemy are living in her home.

As time goes by Rachael begins to feel sympathy for the Luberts. Then she falls in love with Stefan. Heike, on the other hand, still hates the British.

This is a difficult film about a difficult time. There is a lot of racism involved. Rachael hates all Germans, and Heike hates all British. It's obvious to any reasonable thinking person that not all Germans or all British can be bad. However, I have sympathy for someone in Rachael's position. In the aftermath of the war she blamed all Germans for the death of her child. It's wrong, but it's understandable. It's something that requires therapy.

On another level, the racism was institutionalised by the denazification policy of the allied occupation forces. The official policy was that everyone was guilty of being a Nazi unless proven innocent. For instance, Stefan Lubert had to be denazified before being allowed to work as an architect again. He was accused of building houses for Nazi officers, to which he replied that he built houses for everyone. He was asked why he was a member of the Nazi Party, and when he said that he had never been a member of the Party they refused to believe him, because he couldn't prove he had never been a member. It's ridiculous beyond words. Even if he had been a member, so what? For many careers, such as judges and lawyers, Nazi Party membership was a requirement. In the film the British harass anyone who says he isn't a Nazi, and from what I've read the Americans were even worse.

I enjoy the film, though I can't sympathise with Rachael Morgan, who leaps from one extreme to the other. She should have kept a clear head.

The film doesn't seem to be very successful in Stuttgart. The five members of the Stuttgart Film Group were the only people watching the film tonight. It's lucky that we went.