the tragic story of a Jewish informer in Berlin during the war

In the tradition of “Drum” or “Maria Braun’s Wedding”, “Stella, a German Life” revisits Berlin during the Second World War.

The German director Kilian Riedhof traces the activity in the service of the Gestapo of Stella Goldschlag from 1943 to 1945 in Berlin, in Stella, a German life which comes out Wednesday January 17. If The drum by Volker Schlöndorff or The Marriage of Maria Braun by Reiner Werner Fassbinder are references on the subject, they are based on fictional characters, while Stella Goldschlag, also known as Stella Kübler (1922-1994), is a historical character, who leads the film towards the subject of denunciation, rarely brought to the screen.

A life next door

In 1943 in Berlin, an aspiring Jewish jazz singer, Stella worked in the factory and made ends meet by making false papers and making a few passes. Until the day she is arrested and tortured by the Gestapo for denouncing Jews around her. Threatened with being sent to Auschwitz with her parents, she began to denounce Jews around her, then entire groups hidden in Berlin. Arrested by the Soviets, she was sentenced to ten years in prison in the USSR. Returning to Berlin in 1957, she was again sentenced to the same sentence, but having already served it in the USSR, she was released. Rejected and alone, she committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 72.

Stella, a German life is a film about guilt. As she herself says, played by a remarkable Paula Beer, “I never had a normal life“Arrested, tortured, imprisoned, manipulated by the Gestapo, secret informer then in broad daylight, nicknamed Greifer (the grappling hook), and imprisoned again, Stella Goldschlag sees her destiny laid flat with “extenuating circumstances”, in the version what Kilian Riedhof gives.

Judge and executioner

Paula Beer inhabits a very physical role which goes from glamor to prison, and vice versa, playing a range of games expressing all the emotions, from love to fear, from constraint to the assumption of her function. Kilian Riedhof adopts a classic staging that suits the subject, without ever ignoring feelings.

Stella, a German life deals with a rare subject on the screen, undoubtedly unprecedented, through the fate of Stella Goldschlag. By telling the story of a life that no longer belongs to him, a life of judge and executioner, director Kilian Riedhof takes hold of this existence with a certain empathy and tenderness. He presents Stella as “in spite of herself”, under Gestapist pressure. Without being a rehabilitation that has no reason to be, Stella, a German life sheds new light on a part of history, while promoting emotion.

The sheet

Gender : Historical drama
Director : Kilian Riedhof
Actors: Paula Beer, Jannis Niewöhner, Katja Riemann, Lucas Miko, Bakim Lafiti
Country : Germany
Duration : 2h01
Exit : January 17, 2024
Distributer : Kinovista

Warning: scenes, comments or images may offend the sensitivity of viewers

Synopsis: Stella grew up in Berlin under the Nazi regime. She dreams of a career as a jazz singer, despite all the repressive measures. Finally forced to go into hiding with her parents in 1944, her life turned into a sinful tragedy. Inspired by the true story of Stella Goldschlag.