Film Archive

Rosenstrasse

New York 2001. After her husband dies, Ruth seems to be acting very distraught, according to her daughter Hannah. When Hannah starts probing into the past, she finds out that her mother, whose Jewish parents were deported during World War II, was raised by an "Aryan" woman named Lena. Hannah travels to Berlin and finds the now almost 90-year-old Lena. The old woman tells Hannah her story: the story of the women of the Rosenstrasse.

Lena was married to a Jewish musician. One day when he didn't come home from work, she went out looking for him. After a bureaucratic odyssey, she is sent to the Rosenstrasse, where she finds other women also looking for their Jewish husbands who have been incarcerated there. It is in the Rosenstrasse that Lena meets little Ruth.

Upon the wives' diligent insistence, the men are released, but Ruth's mother is deported. Ruth stays with Lena until relatives in the United States send for her. After losing her own mother, Ruth cannot stand losing Lena too, and, in a furious rage, throws the ring that she once received from her mother at Lena's feet.

When Hannah returns with this ring, Ruth is finally able to come to terms with her past.

Margarethe von Trotta ranks among the most important female directors in German cinema since the 1970s, during which time she also made a name for herself as an actress. Today primarily active as a screenwriter and director, her most well-known films include: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum, 1975, in co-direction with Volker Schloendorff), The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages, 1977), Sisters or the Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder Die Balance des Gluecks, 1979), Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit, 1981), Sheer Madness (Heller Wahn, 1983), Rosa Luxemburg (1985), The African Woman (Die Rueckkehr, 1990), The Long Silence (Il Lungo Silenzio, 1993), The Promise (Das Versprechen, 1994), Rosenstrasse (2003), I Am the Other Woman (Ich bin die Andere, 2006), among others.
 

Genre Drama
Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2003
Director Margarethe von Trotta
Screenplay Margarethe von Trotta, Pamela Katz
Director of Photography Franz Rath
Editor Corina Dietz
Music by Loek Dikker
Production Design Heike Bauersfeld
Producers Richard Schoeps, Henrik Meyer, Markus Zimmer
Production Companies Studio Hamburg Letterbox/Hamburg, Tele Muenchen/Munich, in co-production with Get Reel/Amsterdam
Principal Cast Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Martin Feifel, Juergen Vogel, Fedja van Huêt, Doris Schade, Jutta Lampe, Thekla Reuten, Svea Lohde
Casting Sabine Schroth
Special Effects SFX Department/Berlin
Studio Shooting Bavaria Studios/Geiselgasteig, Studio Babelsberg/Potsdam, Studio Hamburg/Hamburg
Length 135 min, 3,715 m
Format Super 35, color, cs
Dubbed Versions German
Original Version German/English
Subtitled Versions English, French, Italian, Spanish
Sound Technology Dolby SRD
Festival Screenings Venice 2003 (in competition), Toronto 2003 (Gala), Ghent/Flanders 2003, Viareggio 2003, Berlin 2004 (German Cinema), Denver 2004
Awards Coppa Volpi for Best Leading Actress (Katja Riemann) Venice 2003, Donatello Award (Italian Film Award) 2004
With backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), BKM, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Eurimages, NCRV, Dutch Film Fund, Cobo Fund
German Distributor Concorde Filmverleih/Munich

World Sales
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