anca_romania I saw this movie just by chance, but i was very glad at the end that i had this luck...I have nothing against the fact that the film included Anna and Robert's love story, even though some may say it was a mere cliché and a pretext for the unfolding of the war background... I liked the idea that two persons can get to fall in love so profoundly and faithfully, and all of a sudden...What i have to reproach, though, is the fact that the characters were somehow just the pretext for the movie's target, that was to show a realistic picture of the war and the bombings... The characters and their relationships (the relationship between Anna and Robert,for example) lacked complexity, there was not a substantial personal and inner experience to mingle with and mould itself to the experience of war and make the characters pass through a dramatic process of their life. The plot involving the love story was kind of simplistic... Of course, the film showed the pure reality, which was good- an example of common people's lives as they were, simple, and of course the trauma that marked each and every one of them, even if not in a highly personal way as i would have liked... My opinion may not be totally correct, but this is what i felt... Where I found some substantial complexity, though, was in Anna's father experience, for he did learn at the end, when he died, how vain all his intentions were in the context of all the suffering around him, he understood that his efforts to dodge the war were vain if everything- family and peace- was being destroyed by the war just under his eyes...But, on the whole the movie really marked me, and i learned how such an experience as war somehow takes the charm of love and anything else that we hold so dear and that our soul really needs to be alive and content… war makes all these in those horrible moments seem petty...less valuable, appealing to us than they were before… maybe that was why the movie centered especially on the collective suffering... and not on a highly personal experience... because presenting the particular experience of Anna and Robert was just in order to perceive the war through their eyes (that is from a realistic, authentic and not an objective perspective, an effect that a documentary would not have had), but not through their soul too, that is from a personal inner view and experience… Despite this or maybe because of this, i think the movie does deserve acclaim!

moreymark This TV mini-series was recently shown on SBS television in Australia, and after reading David Irving's work on Dresden I decided to watch it. I was pleasantly surprised, as it was both entertaining and able to capture many of the issues around this controversial air-raid. The only major issue I felt was overlooked was that Dresden was never expected to be a target, and therefore was woefully unprepared. There were few air-raid shelters and little anti-aircraft protection of the city. The lack of anti-aircraft fire enabled the RAF to bomb very accurately, and was a major factor in the destruction that followed.Despite this, the story itself was reasonably well told. It is an common technique to use intimate relationships to help us focus on human tragedy. In this instance, the three-way relationship added an extra degree of tension to the story.

headshot69 I was very moved by this film. The subtitles didn't bother me at all, but instead made the movie more realistic.It didn't quite end as i thought it would (characters wise), however it was a great insight into the "other side".I've always thought the obliteration of Dresden was over the top, and to this day it is controversial.Anyway, as another person said, this probably has more impact than a mere documentary.Oh, and Felicitas Woll - even though it is a VERY serious subject matter, the film is worth watching just for her :)

elcilorien This is an excellent miniseries that does a wonderful job at portraying the ambivalence of war. Because we follow characters in both England and Germany, we see that neither side is completely to blame for the horrors of WWII, however, neither is completely innocent either. Apart from that, this movie should not be seen as a documentary of the bombing of Dresden. Although the movie is titled "Dresden," it follows characters more than history, though one does learn a little of that as well. Highly recommended for warm characters and a touching drama. This is the kind of movie that you can't stop thinking about days after you've seen it.