Surprisingly good


There's a lot of elements to this story and I think this film explores them well. It would be easy to consider the farcical aspects and forget the human story at its centre, and this doesn't forget to indulge the former to a degree without ever dropping the latter.

Herfurth is wonderful and I really want to see more of her. She's exquisitely beautiful, talented, and occupies the screen in a comfortable and arresting way. She's a star.


"I'll book you. I'll book you on something. I'll find something in the book to book you on."

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girl is pretty but the movie is a joke

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It would be easy to consider the farcical aspects and forget the human story at its centre


It also seems THIS MOVIE forgot a "human story at its centre", that of Dora/Heinrich Ratjen. It's simply disgusting how the facts were twisted. He was just as much a victim of all of this as Gretel Bergmann. She only comes across as a bitter old woman by believing it was some sort of conspiracy against her and keeping the myth alive.

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I think the movie does depict Marie, the "Dora" character, as being a victim too. The question is whose victim, the Nazis' or a simple misfortune that people didn't know how to deal with. Gretel didn't rule one way or another on this question, she said she didn't know. Since she wasn't privy to the facts of the case and what might have gone on behind the scenes, I think that's probably the only honest response she could have given.

"He shall be an adder on the path, to bite a horse's heel"

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In interviews Bergmann has said she got along just fine with the other girls, but somehow it's okay for us to think that everyone was against her. She says she never knew about Dora, but somehow she does "know" it was a conspiracy, even after being confronted with the facts. She agreed with the content of the movie, even though its researchers knew the truth was something completey else. I've read multiple interviews with her and although I can understand some bitterness, she comes across as an unpleasant woman. We will never know if she would have been able to win a gold medal and set a new record at the Olympics, but nonetheless she acts as if this is a fact. In my opinion she quite enjoys keeping the myth alive. You can call me skeptical, but it's just a feeling I get.

The question is whose victim, the Nazis' or a simple misfortune that people didn't know how to deal with


That's not the question at all. The movie doesn't discuss the fact that Ratjen was born a man but raised as a girl due to genital deformity and how that truly affected his life. Also, Ratjen was not a victim of the Nazi's in the sense that he was used by them in a conspiracy against Bergmann. Ratjen was a victim of society and something deeper and more widespread than Nazi ideology. It's ridiculous how Gretel Bergmann is victimized by herself and the makers of this movie at the cost of Ratjen. Do you even know how horrible the rest of Heinrich Ratjen's life was?

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