"Unter Bauern" or "Unter Bauern - Retter in der Nacht" or "Saviors in the Night" is a German movie from 2009, so only two more years until it has its 10th anniversary. It is one of the not so frequent directorial efforts by prolific producer Ludi Boeken. Many writers worked on the script here and the film is based on the book by Marga Spiegel and we see her at the very end in a poor man's attempt to create a Schindler's List vibe when we have her stand next to lead actress Veronica Ferres and the crew. You heard the name Ferres and you probably know this means no good. The names Ferres and Rohde are the most known here and this is a story about Jews being saved in Nazi Germany through the help of farmers hiding them from the soldiers. It's an okay story, but the execution was really poor in terms of acting, production values and most of all the script. To see how the film also takes itself so seriously certainly wasn't helping matters either. Spiegel definitely deserved better, even if the fact that she was played by a limited actress like Ferres and the performance itself were probably not as bad as the take on the story here. I know it is tough to come up with something new with these hundreds of movies made on the subject of Jews and Nazi Germany, but if you have a decent story for once like Spiegel's, then you really need to deliver more than they did here. Thumbs down. Watch something else instead unless you belong to the easily entertained and I somewhat wish Spiegel did and did not see this film for the flawed piece that it was before dying 3 years ago at the ancient age of 101. She really does not deserve the disappointment.
Review of Unter Bauern
