Bigotry is not something we are born with; it is learned. But as children grow they are forced to decide for themselves which lessons their parents taught them were valuable, and which must be rejected. This is the universal conflict at the center of Australian writer-director Cate Shortland's new drama Lore, though she tells it within an unexpected arena.
Set in the spring of 1945 when the Germany army fell to the Allied forces, this coming of age story follows a fourteen-year-old German named Lore, a girl who was raised by her mother and SS officer father to staunchly believe Nazi propaganda. Once her parents are imprisoned for their crimes, Lore must lead her four younger siblings through her war-ravaged homeland to seek safety with her grandmother up north. The roads are perilous, but soon Lore and her siblings find protection in the form of a charming Jewish refugee named Thomas. Their shared journey will change Lore forever.
Check out the film's first trailer below:
It seems the end of World War II is having an unexpected moment right now. Both Lore and the Tommy Lee Jones-fronted drama Emperor deal with Axis nations immediately following their surrenders. Moreover, each film looks to explore the hardship faced by civilians of countries that were once America's enemies. But with all the bloodshed and incomprehensible atrocities that lie within World War II, this topic still seems taboo even sixty plus years later. Will today's audiences give these stories a chance? We'll find out when they hit in the coming months.
Lore opens February 8th; Emperor follows on March 8th.
