Amnesia

Set against dreamy, panoramic views of a jewel-blue Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Ibiza, the curious and appealing Amnesia plays like a spare theater piece opened up cinematically to dazzling coastal cliffs, with the story's two major characters living in neighboring houses. The year is 1990, and Martha (Marthe Keller), a non-Jewish German who fled her native country during the Holocaust as a teen--accompanied by her Jewish cello teacher--lives a mellow, isolated existence obscuring an angry withdrawal from her roots. She refuses to speak German, drink German wine, or even ride in a Volkswagen, extreme positions that initially baffle Jo (Max Riemelt), the 25-year-old DJ from Berlin who has moved in next door and developed an unlikely bond with Martha. The rocky and somewhat dangerous path between their homes serves as an apt metaphor for their tricky relationship: platonic but teetering on intimacy. And then Jo's father (Bruno Ganz) arrives, a congenial man with a hidden role during the Nazi atrocities. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Barbet Schroder, Amnesia is hardly the first film to explore questions about culpability, memory, and relative guilt among Germans regarding the Holocaust, but it deftly connects that 20th century nightmare to the director's pet themes concerning pathology and responsibility. Recommended. (T. Keogh)