- Title: 'Hilde' shows Nazi resistance fighter's quiet strength at Berlinale
- Date: 17th February 2024
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 17, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR LIV LISA FRIES, SAYING: "Unfortunately it is quite important, I think, especially for Germans. So I think it is good, that we show how it was in these times." FRIES SPEAKING TO REPORTER / BERLINALE BEAR LOGO AT FESTIVAL VENUE VARIOUS OF SCHEER POSING WITH ACTORS EMMA BADING, LISA HRDINA, SINA MARTENS
- Embargoed: 2nd March 2024 16:04
- Keywords: 74th Berlinale Andreas Dresen Berlin Film Festival Berlinale From Hilde with Love Hilde Coppi Liv Lisa Fries
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA003131417022024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hilde Coppi, slightly uptight and bookish, well-liked by her employers, does not fit the image of a heroic Nazi resistance fighter, which is precisely why director Andreas Dresen was drawn to her character for his new film "From Hilde, With Love."
"(She is) someone who doesn't stride ahead with her fist held high but whose decency comes from the heart. And I think people like that are often overlooked. But they are very valuable," Dresen told Reuters ahead of the film's Berlin Film Festival premiere on Saturday (February 17).
Hilde's octogenarian son walked the red carpet along with the cast of the film competing for the festival's top prize.
In the film, featuring "Babylon Berlin" star Liv Lisa Fries, Hilde's joyful moments - falling in love with Hans Coppi (Johannes Hegemann) and becoming pregnant - are interspersed with her time at a women's prison, where she gave birth, and eventual execution.
The Nazis beheaded 34-year-old Hilde in August 1943 for her role in the loosely knit group known as the Red Orchestra, which involved passing on Soviet broadcasts about German prisoners of war to affected families and helping Hans transmit Morse code messages to Moscow - all but one of which reached its destination.
For Dresen and screenwriter Laila Stieler, "From Hilde, With Love" was a way to turn the anti-fascist icons they grew up with in the former East Germany into normal people whom audiences could relate to who are just trying to do the right thing.
Dresen said the fact that the film is topical again, as Germany's far right has gained an increasing political foothold, is not something that he wanted. "We live in a time where we have to make sure that we remain decent, that we remain human."
(Production: Martin Schlicht, Swantje Stein) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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