This movie is based on a book by Hans Fallada (whose book Little Man What Now I read forty years ago but still remember) that fictionalizes the real-life story of Otto and Elise Hampel.
I was struck by how quiet this movie is. Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson play Otto and Anna Quangel, whose only son is killed fighting for the German army. Their grief is so overwhelming that they cannot say it out loud. But Otto puts it into words, scratched out onto postcards, which he leaves to be found by others. His brief slogans of protest, signed ‘Free Press’ exhort people to rise up against Hitler. For all their simplicity and crudity, these postcards taken very seriously by the Nazis.
This is not at all an action movie. It’s quiet, slow and imbued with a quiet, threadbare dignity. Writing these postcards was a small and very, very dangerous act of resistance. I’d like to think that I’d be similarly brave, but I know that I would not be.
My rating: 8/5/10
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
I wish I’d seen this, it was an impressive book.
Screenings seem to be finished now so I will have to wait till it’s available as a DVD.
I think it might still be on at the Nova, the home of all films about to expire….
I’ll check it out:)
I agree with RJ, it was a really engrossing movie. So slowly and quietly developed. The script was good, and Gleeson and Thompson were excellent. I agree re being brave. I think it’s unlikely I’d be that brave too. They were scary times and people did really nasty things to those they didn’t agree with.