The Miracle of Bern (5 Stars)

Doesn't Katharina Wackernagel remind you of the Matrix's woman in red? She's the face of the new Germany. Everyone else is wearing dull colours and sitting meekly, like good Germans are expected to do. Katharina is wearing bright red, and she's jumping up and down waving a German flag. Patriotism can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the circumstances, but I always respect a woman who rebels against convention. Especially when it's a beautiful woman like Katharina.

This is the exact opposite. While Katharina is jumping up and down waving her flag, the German monks are sitting with their bread and cheese, huddled around a radio in a small room. That's a sad life for sad men.

"The Miracle of Bern" is a difficult film to describe in a few words. It has different plots running in parallel that belong to different genres. It's been described as a sports film. While that's true, it doesn't begin to describe the film's complexity.

The film is about Germany's Football World Cup victory in 1954. Before anyone says "So what?" let me point out that Germany had never won the World Cup before then. They were outsiders, not even expected to get into the quarter finals. Hungary, the clear favourites, defeated Germany 8:3 in the opening round, and the two teams met again in the final. Germany miraculously rebounded from being 2:0 down to winning the match 3:2.

The story is told through the eyes of Richard Lubanski and his family. In summer 1954 he returned to Germany after spending 11 years in a Russian prison. He would have returned earlier, but he was given an extra five years for stealing a loaf of bread while he was in prison. Can you blame him? Most days there wasn't any food, and he says that the prisoners around him were dying of hunger.

He's come back to Essen, a city in ruins. The city hasn't been rebuilt because there's no money to pay for it. His wife Christa has been running a small pub. His 17-year-old son Bruno is a Communist who dreams of moving to East Germany where "everyone can say what he thinks". His 16-year-old daughter flirts with British soldiers in the family pub because it's good for business. His 11-year-old son Mathias, who was born after he left home, makes money by selling cigarettes. Matthias has a new father figure, Helmut Rahn, a member of the German World Cup squad.

Richard finds that he doesn't fit in. He's incapable of returning to his job as a coal miner for physical and psychological reasons. He wants to be a strict father, but his children reject his authority. In prison he at least knew who he was, but back home he's a nobody.

Germany is caught up in World Cup fever, while Richard is just fighting to survive from one day to the next. He goes to church to ask the priest for help, but all the priest wants to talk about is football. Maybe that's what the film is really about. It shows that football creates new hope. Winning the World Cup was the first step in healing Germany after the War.

Katharina Wackernagel plays Annette Ackermann, showing the contrast in German society. She comes from a rich family that survived the Second World War with its wealth intact. She lives in a big home in Munich, and she's married to a sports reporter. She doesn't understand football. She doesn't need football in her life. Or does she? Maybe the rich Germans had different problems that needed healing.

For someone who doesn't even like football, the woman in red yells the loudest when Helmut Rahn scores Germany's winning goal. Earlier in the game she was the only one standing and cheering on the German team. Now all the men are standing up with her. Not the women. Germany's women needed another few decades to catch up with her.

"The Miracle of Bern" was released in 2003, and it's one of Germany's most successful films. It was seen by more than six million people in the cinemas. It's about German pride, and more to the point, it's about not being ashamed to be German.