Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Jördis Triebel, Tristan Göbel, Alexander Scheer, Jacky Ido, Anja Antonowicz, Ryszard Ronczewski, Andreas Nickl, Polina Voskresenskaya, Hendrik Arnst, Tony Dunham.

The battles in Europe may have been won but the war for hearts and minds in the ideological minefield was gathering pace and with Berlin divided in a more brutal fashion than even Germany as a whole suffered, so the divisions between East and West grew, hatred was stoked up and paranoia was increased.

For many in the east, life in the west represented a new start, the chance to make choices, it was a dream many were willing to sacrifice everything they had. For some though it was the best way forward in which to forget the past and in Heide Schwochow’s screenplay West, the past is everywhere and with only the barest glimmer of hope attached to the purgatory of existence that is housed between the two states of mind.

West may be the destination for Nelly and Alexej Senff, but it helps tremendously if there is a vehicle to take them onwards rather than being pillared into a story that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. If ever there that was a film that could have offered so much, the odd speculation of intrigue and the faint whisperings of what could be, dashed at almost corner as the truth of ideological warfare and suspicion are only ever hinted at and never truly confronted.

It is disappointing in a way that such was offered, such was the allusion and yet redemption is snatched away like truth on the run from the Stasi and in the end the film suffers because of it.

Suffering can only last so long though for at least in the performances of Jördis Triebel and the young Tristan Göbel there is at least something heart-warming in the midst of all the destruction and dissatisfaction. The mother and son combination running from the loaded suspicions of the East German authorities at least allow themselves to pulled to the brink of paranoia and for the that the film is at least partially saved; even if it doesn’t actually give the feeling of empathy to any of the characters within the entire film.

It is a rare feeling to not have any residue of sympathy for any character within a film, even one that deals with the terrifying situation of institutionalised confinement. West, like the ideology that could have been more alluded to, had so much to offer, but in the end barely gives satisfying and soul fulfilment.

Ian D. Hall