The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
germany law student affair nazi war crime concentration camp trial defendant reconciliation based on novel or book war crimes world war ii women's prison female prisoner reading aloud love affair cynical teenage sexuality older woman younger man relationship reading to someone secret lover shame literacy frantic west germany courtroom drama complex cautionary depressing cruel disheartening embarrassed tragic
sah reviewed The Reader (2008)
The Reader
I like the old fashioned three act story. Summer fling, SS trial, and dealing with the aftermath of the Nazis. Tragically, a summer fling shapes the boy's entire life, but also reinforced by the woman's role with the SS. There's a very nice sequence where Ralph Fienees records some books on tape paralleled by Winslet listening to them in prison.
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