Lore

Radio Times“Visually striking but sombre...” Australian co-writer and director Cate Shortland gets astounding performances from a very young cast in a film that is quietly shocking and offers no comforting answers...

The Observer“It isn't exactly a profound film...” It has the feeling of a dream vividly but fragmentarily recalled, and there's no sentimental ending to suggest it's been a healing experience...

Little White Lies“Sold short by its overblown style...” Incessantly beautifies the squalor and matters of tone are not helped by Max Richter’s swirling and hysterically inclined neo-classical score...

Financial Times“The plot might be a dream, even a posthumous one...” The coda is clever. Not even safety and sanctuary quite wipe clean the trauma slate. New autocracies lie in wait, ready to replace the old...

Guardian“A supposed happy ending, with a sting in its tail...” Australian director Cate Shortland's drama is overflowing with such poetic visual touches, conjuring up a fairytale landscape of long shadows, wafting curtains and waving fronds. And yet, as with all the best fairytales, there is a blackness...

The Independent“This is an outstanding piece of work...” Shortland directs with a rigorous honesty, and prospers from at least three vital decisions: first, to film the script in German second, to hire the brilliant cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (Snowtown) whose images of nature and decay are so haunting...

Time Out“Like the bleakest fairytale you can imagine...” Rosendahl is astonishing as Lore, who is very much her father’s daughter. She looks with disgust at a crippled boy. She hates Jews. But during her journey the spell is broken. Slowly the truth is revealed – she has been lied to by her parents...

The Arts Desk“The performances give Lore the quality of life itself observed...” Shortland manages outstandingly that rare thing, making a film, totally convincingly, in a language that’s not her native one. More than that, she reminds us of the very basics of cinema itself - image, light, sound, gesture...

Empire“Measured pacing and hypnotic visuals make this a mesmerising journey... ” As relationships develop and terrible decisions are faced, it’s both grim and gripping with a great turn from the promising Rosendahl — think a young, German Kelly McGillis....

Total Film “Imaginatively adapted by Australian director Cate Shortland...” From The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert and built around Rosendhal’s outstanding performance, this oblique and understated tale of lost innocence conveys both an individual’s experiences and a powerful sense of a ruined nation...