From Hilde, with Love

KinoFest 2025

German Film Festival

Red Carpet Cinema 3, Shangri-la Plaza

Towards the ending, there is a very brief scene which still haunts me. It added significant impact to an otherwise average narration of the true life story of Hilde Coppi, an anti fascist advocate in Berlin during the second World War. Well she only became active through her husband, Hans.

It is the year 1941, a shy medical assistant Hilde falls in love with Hans, a fervent activist involved in the underground Anti Nazi resistance movement known as the Red Orchestra. They get married and soon enough Hilde is with child. In the summer of 1942,  they are both arrested by the Gestapo for their subversive activities. They are charged with high treason and are sentenced to death. In prison, she is handcuffed to the bed and gives birth under harsh conditions. Hans is executed first (even though it isn't shown in the film). Hilde spends the rest of her life sentence in prison with her infant son.

The film unfolds in a non linear manner showing scenes of their idyllic summers engaging in their anti war campaign interspersed with dark, gloomy sequences of the Hilde's hardships in prison. Presented with hardly any segment of violence portraying the known atrocities of the Nazis, nor any political leanings, the film is too clinical and in essence minimizes the horrors that actually occurred during the brutally pervasive reign of Nazism in the second World War.

 
It also tends to be too claustrophobic because it is merely confined within the prison walls. Even the guards at the prisoners camp were not very 'strict'. Their activism was simply depicted as putting up anti Nazi stickers on lamp posts, distributing anti war leaflets on public transports and communicating clandestinely with the families of Russian-held POWs using hand held radios. So for someone who is not familiar with the monstrosities perpetuated by the Gestapo and the Nazis during World War 2, it would seem too feeble to even merit incarceration.

Nevertheless, that scene which haunted me long after I left the theater was powerful because it put everything into perspective. It shows the women prisoners waiting outside a door for their execution. Some of them are praying, others are visibly distraught and crying while some are stoic. It was Hilde's turn to enter the room. Inside there are three officers in military uniforms seated behind a long table. An aide reads out loud, her name Hilde Coppi and the crime she is guilty of. Suddenly a curtain is drawn! Her hands bound, she lies face down, then strapped to the guillotine. In one harrowing jolt, the guillotine blade drops, ending her life instantly.  All of these unfold in just a few minutes even seconds, leaving you hardly any moment to fully grasp what happened. No hysterics, no drama, just a straightforward death scene. A forceful manner to end a film, pun intended.

The Portuguese House

Pelicula, Pelikula

Spanish Film Festival

Power Plant Cinemas 

You know how you occasionally tell little white lies but don't feel like you are out right lying? For instance, you text someone you have a rendez vous with that you are on your way when the truth is you just booked a Grab ride so it would take several minutes before you are actually seated in the vehicle and several minutes before you reach your destination.

This is the impression I got after I watched The Portuguese House. Things unravel for Fernando, a Spanish geography teacher when his wife of three years Milena suddenly disappears. Well not in the macabre way of vanishing but she left him and goes back to Serbia, her country. No notes, no dramatic moments of I.am.leaving.you.because.I.am.not.happy.in.Barcelona - nothing. Fernando comes home from his class and she is not home. For days, no word, no contact, no email - nothing. Although, he is disturbed, he has no way of contacting her,  nor any friends to ask if they know where Milena is.

In turn, Fernando also goes off to clear his mind. He travels all the way to Northern Portugal to some quiet coastal area where he meets Manuel. They exchange stories (or as we say in the vernacular, make kwentuhan) and Manuel mentions that he has a new job as a gardener at some country estate. Unfortunately, Manuel suffers a heart attack and dies and Fernando in his stricken state decides to assume Manuel's identity and shows  up at the quinta (house) owned by Amalia posing as the new gardener.

Amalia is the elegant, mysterious owner of the estate of the almond trees which she inherited from her grandmother. She too like Fernando has an identity crisis stemming from her childhood growing up during the final era of the Portuguese colonial rule in Angola. Fleeing Angola to live with her grandmother in Portugal. She has a profound crisis of belonging and painful displacement.

Perhaps I have offered way too much spoilers so I will focus on the structure of the film. It unfolds at a slow and much like Fernando at a quiet pace. From the drab monotone of Barcelona to the refreshingly rural setting of the quinta where life is calmer and more tranquil. It is the perfect setting for two individuals who are internally grappling with too much noise from their past, an ideal escape. 

Just when you think the dust has finally settled, a plot twist is thrown in to shake the cobwebs away. But mind you, the plot twist is not earth shattering. It is still in tune with the calm, serene pacing of the narrative. It does certainly offer much needed closure for Manuel or Fernando. Concluding with a brigher prospective for his future and his shattered life in general. Because no one really deserves to go through this life with too much unresolved chapters and open ended questions which will haunt you incessantly. Believe me, it isn't pleasant.