183. Where Hands Touch; movie review

WHERE HANDS TOUCH
Cert 12A

122 mins
BBFC advice: Contains disturbing scenes, moderate violence, sex, sexual threat, discrimination

Blimey, Where Hands Touch has come in for a right old pasting.
Critics lining up to have a pop include those who reckon it romanticises Nazis and even suggests fetishism with regard to black women.
What a load of old nonsense. Ok, it should not have been claimed that Amma Asante's film was based on a true story but, despite my beef on that score, I was gripped and it succeeded in opening a whole new arena of The Second World War for me.
Amandla Stenberg, who has found herself compelled to defend the movie, gives a commanding performance as a black teenager growing up in the face of discrimination in wartime Germany.
Her character, Leyna, sees herself as a proud German despite the growing dangers in a state where a fanatical leadership is turning on its own people.

Born from the romance between a black occupying soldier and German mother after the First World War, Leyna finds herself more and more isolated from friends and family.
And then comes the romance with Lutz (George Mackay) who outwardly fits Hitler's concept of perfect Aryan blond.
Theirs is very much a secret bond because of the potential perils but they take great risks, regardless.
The backdrop of Asante's film is brutal - the Nazi officers, particularly those in the SS, need little encouragement to shoot dissenters or even anyone who looks slightly out of place.
Opposed to the violence is Leyna's mother (Abbie Cornish) whose libertarian views are well out-of-step with the times.
Interestingly, the Lutz's father (Christopher Eccleston) is a German officer but is privately opposed to the brutality and seeks to survive what he believes is an inevitably lost war.
The movie is punctuated by moral dilemmas for the four leading characters who are left to decide whether to follow their conscience or save themselves.
Some have said that the romance is far-fetched and the conclusion is overly dramatic but, while this may be true, the wider point about the fate of people of colour is well made.
And, purely as a vehicle for entertainment, I felt that Where Hands Touch worked.
I empathised with the characters and was engaged by their moral dilemmas, particularly in the shadow of the cruel Nazi regime.
I was also impressed again by Stenberg and Mackay as well as Cornish and Eccleston.


Reasons to watch: Compelling take on a hidden Second War War story
Reasons to avoid: The romance is very unlikely

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? The 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with “people of German blood”.  A subsequent ruling confirmed that black people (like “gypsies”) were to be regarded as being “of alien blood” and subject to the Nuremberg principles. 

The final word. Amandla Stenberg: “I think it’s challenging for people to conceive of a story about the Holocaust that is not centred around the Jewish experience, but the experience of someone else. But I think what the movie does really beautifully is it demonstrates what happens with these tricky intersections of identity and how we still continue to be human and love and be loved, despite that.”

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