The Legend of Rita, written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase and Volker Schlondorff, directed by the latter - 8.5 out of 10

The Legend of Rita, written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase and Volker Schlondorff, directed by the latter

8.5 out of 10

Volker Schlondorff has directed The Academy Award Winner The Tin Drum and although The Legend of Rita is not on the same level, it is nevertheless more than Oscar material, especially when compared with the likes of the most recent A Star is Born or Black Panther.

The heroine of the film is Rita Vogt, portrayed by the impressive Bibiana Beglau, winner of the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actress – tied with her partner on screen, Nadja Uhl, who plays Tatjana.

Rita belongs to a gang of terrorists that remind one of another celebrated German motion picture, The Baader Meinhof Complex, where The Red Army Faction, with Ulrike Meinhof at the core, organized bombings that have terrified society.

Like the RAF, Rita and her comrades rob banks and claim to fight imperialism, albeit at different stages they combat against each other, under accusations of selling out the cause, or just not being “pure” enough to carry on with that preposterous struggle that one from the East would see as barbaric.

I lived for twenty-five years under the Ceausescu regime, brought here via Moscow, and there is nothing worse than the communist system – the Nazis have managed to kill fewer people than Stalin or Mao, who have beaten them with many tens of millions of corpses.

Therefore, the attitude of the Legendary Rita – and that of latter day socialists like Corbyn, Sanders, Melenchon or AOC – is often repellent and that would make her an antihero, except that she gradually becomes a complicated, intriguing character, more fun to watch than a one-sided Hollywood type of protagonist.

However, to begin with, Miss Vogt and her fellow “fighters against the evil imperialism” are as loathsome as anyone can get, killing innocent people, once in the process of helping one of them escape from prison, when the lawyer and a guard are assassinated.

Later on, the heroine is in Paris – this would attract criticism and self-reflection, for these people are not interested in carpe diem, enjoying themselves, on the contrary, they reject pleasure and are committed to what they see as the “good of the world”, which in reality would be the collapse of civilization, were they to ever succeed in their fanatical enterprise.

While she is taking a friend on the motorbike, she is observed by a policeman who is also riding a bike and when he becomes suspicious, Rita leaves the other woman to walk away and she continues her attempt to get away, arriving in a parking lot and this being a dead end, she shoots the pursuer, although it seemed gratuitous, apart from being inhuman and the most vicious act someone can perform.

When she was passing through East German customs, the protagonist was stopped, searched by the officials who find a pistol in her luggage, but instead of acting upon it with severity, they encourage a future collaboration, seeing as they have the same enemy.

In other words, the evil communist regimes were happy to collaborate with murderers, terrorists, heinous individual, as long as they killed innocent people in the West, in capitalist countries and they have offered logistic, financial, any kind of support needed to Carlos the Jackal and others like him.

In the case of Rita and her fellow terrorists, the East German communists contemplate various hideouts, for they are wanted by West Germany, and among those they looked at Angola – which at the time had a massive Cuban presence on its territory, meant to bring the plague of communism there – and Mozambique, another country where the diabolical reds meddled.

Erwin Hull is the Secret Police agent in charge of the operation – he must have met with Putin, a spy in that land at about the time of the narrative –and he discusses this with a general, while they met at a boar hunting party, where the objection is brought – these are white people and they would stand out in an African country.

Eventually, the former terrorists are offered a new identity, within East Germany, where Rita meets Tatjana and they become more than close friends…although it is never clear if the romantic feelings have ever come to a physical fruition, their bond is strong.

This film has been on the Cinemax program last night and the translation has not helped, perhaps it is impossible to make the distinction in German, a language that I do not know, but the fact is that interrogators, the women themselves kept using the word “freunde” when describing their relationship and that sounds so close to friend that it made the translation as “lover” seem inexact.

The two lovers or friends, whatever the proper term would be, have a tremendous time together – being cynical, one could add especially given the belief of the “revolutionary” Rita that this is the best possible society, the communist Animal Farm, with its dogs aka Secret Police providing refuge to terrorists.

However, the cover provided by the Stasi is compromised for many in the East were not as foolish as the heroine and they watched the capitalist television, where the photos and details regarding the wanted group are given and albeit the appearance of the fugitive has changed, she has a scar on one elbow and somebody confronts her on that issue.

Erwin Hull demands that Rita takes a trip and what looked like a temporary withdrawal becomes a definitive exit, with tears of regret and a scene of love – was it unilateral? – followed by a new life, with a different fake identity, up to the moment of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, regretted and condemned by the still communist Rita.