Joy Division (2006 film): Difference between revisions
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| director = [[Reg Traviss]] |
| director = [[Reg Traviss]] |
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| producer = Kim Leggatt |
| producer = Kim Leggatt |
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| writer = |
| writer = Reg Traviss<br />Rosemary Mason |
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| starring = [[Tom Schilling]]<br>[[Ed Stoppard]]<br>[[Bernadette Heerwagen]]<br>[[Bernard Hill]]<br>[[Ricci Harnett]]<br>[[Michelle Gayle]]<br>[[Ram John Holder]]<br>Sybille Gebhardt<br>[[Marlon Kittel]] |
| starring = [[Tom Schilling]]<br>[[Ed Stoppard]]<br>[[Bernadette Heerwagen]]<br>[[Bernard Hill]]<br>[[Ricci Harnett]]<br>[[Michelle Gayle]]<br>[[Ram John Holder]]<br>Sybille Gebhardt<br>[[Marlon Kittel]] |
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| music = [[George Kallis]] |
| music = [[George Kallis]] |
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| Line 20: | Line 20: | ||
| language = English |
| language = English |
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| budget = $6,000,000 |
| budget = $6,000,000 |
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| gross = |
| gross = |
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}} |
}} |
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'''''Joy Division''''' is a 2006 British-German-Hungarian film directed by [[Reg Traviss]]. The story is a fictional biopic which follows the life of a boy in Germany at the end of [[World War II Germany|World War II]] into his adulthood in Russia and London during the [[Cold War]]. The script was written by Reg Traviss and Rosemary Mason and went into production in 2004 after completion of Traviss' short film JD Pilot in 2003, based upon the same script and which also starred [[Ed Stoppard]] in the role of adult Thomas. ''Joy Division'' was shown for the film industry at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] European Film Market and at the [[American Film Market]] in 2005. It was invited to screen at the [[Copenhagen International Film Festival]] in 2006 and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom in November 2006. |
'''''Joy Division''''' is a 2006 British-German-Hungarian film directed by [[Reg Traviss]]. The story is a fictional biopic which follows the life of a boy in Germany at the end of [[World War II Germany|World War II]] into his adulthood in Russia and London during the [[Cold War]]. The script was written by Reg Traviss and Rosemary Mason and went into production in 2004 after completion of Traviss' short film JD Pilot in 2003, based upon the same script and which also starred [[Ed Stoppard]] in the role of adult Thomas. ''Joy Division'' was shown for the film industry at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] European Film Market and at the [[American Film Market]] in 2005. It was invited to screen at the [[Copenhagen International Film Festival]] in 2006 and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom in November 2006. |
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Thomas ([[Ed Stoppard]]), a young [[German people|German]], fights unsuccessfully as one of [[Nazi Germany]]'s Joy Division youth troops after the [[Soviet Union]] invades. In the early 1960s, he loses faith in the ideals he was brought up with, and works as a [[espionage|spy]] and assassin for the Russians during the [[Cold War]]. His story is mostly revealed in flashbacks. |
Thomas ([[Ed Stoppard]]), a young [[German people|German]], fights unsuccessfully as one of [[Nazi Germany]]'s Joy Division youth troops after the [[Soviet Union]] invades. In the early 1960s, he loses faith in the ideals he was brought up with, and works as a [[espionage|spy]] and assassin for the Russians during the [[Cold War]]. His story is mostly revealed in flashbacks. |
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[[Tom Schilling]] plays the younger Thomas |
[[Tom Schilling]] plays the younger Thomas. His family is killed, leaving him orphaned, and with only his girlfriend Melanie ([[Bernadette Heerwagen]]) left. |
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His girlfriend Melanie is repeatedly raped by [[Red Army]] soldiers and she is eventually killed by a Soviet soldier after having sex with him and two other Soviet soldiers in order to protect Thomas from being beaten and killed by the soldiers. |
His girlfriend Melanie is repeatedly raped by [[Red Army]] soldiers and she is eventually killed by a Soviet soldier after having sex with him and two other Soviet soldiers in order to protect Thomas from being beaten and killed by the soldiers. |
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Years later, he falls in love with Yvonne (Michelle Gayle), while on assignment in |
Years later, he falls in love with Yvonne (Michelle Gayle), while on assignment in Britain; she has no idea what he is really employed to do. |
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==Story== |
==Story== |
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{{Long plot|date=January 2022}} |
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''Joy Division'' is a drama set in the [[World War II|Second World War]] and in the [[Cold War]] as well. It is a non-linear story, told in a series of flashbacks to the mid-1940s and early |
''Joy Division'' is a drama set in the [[World War II|Second World War]] and in the [[Cold War]] as well. It is a non-linear story, told in a series of flashbacks to the mid-1940s and early 1960s, narrated in voice over from the film's present day setting of 1966. |
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===1944/1945=== |
===1944/1945=== |
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In the eastern German province of [[Silesia]], 1944, the war has barely hit the home front. Thomas, an aspiring teenage painter, and his girlfriend Melanie, are both members of the [[Hitler Youth]]. When the Eastern Front collapses, the boys in Thomas's Hitler Youth unit are drafted into the [[Volkssturm]]. After his family is killed in an air-raid, he is deployed to the front lines. |
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| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | Facing annihilation at the hands of Soviet [[shock troops]] in a battle inside a factory. Thomas escapes as the sole survivor. Shell-shocked, he takes refuge in a bomb crater where he meets Astrid, a student-nurse foraging. Together they flee and join the mass exodus of refugees heading westwards, away from the advancing [[Red Army|Soviet Army]]. Thomas and Astrid bond like brother and sister and rely on each other to survive. During an aerial attack they meet Karl (Thomas Darchinger), who informs them of an army evacuation transport pick-up post, which after weeks of walking they reach with other soldiers. Fighting for a seat on the lorries, they get separated. Astrid and Karl get aboard the last lorry. Left alone on the road, Thomas is seconded by troops into a last offensive. Fighting alongside a mish-mash of soldiers, including [[British Free Corps]] member Harry Stone, he fights for an aleatory success and little respite. |
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Meanwhile, Thomas' hometown, many miles away, is devastated by Soviet artillery and then assaulted by Soviet shock troops who instantly overrun the town left with only civilian defense structures. The invading soldiers kill and loot. Melanie and her family are found, dragged out from the air-raid shelter and lined up on their knees in the garden. Melanie's grandfather is shot dead. Her mother, trying to vindicate her father, is shot dead in the process. Her grandmother is bludgeoned by a gun-butt. Melanie is slapped to the ground and gang-raped by soldiers and their officer. Melanie and the other survivors trek through the snowy landscape as refugees but are soon caught in the path of another wave of Soviet troops. Again they are captured, beaten, killed and raped. |
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Meanwhile, Thomas's hometown is devastated by Soviet artillery and then attacked by Soviet troops who quickly overrun the town's weak defenses. The invading soldiers kill and loot. Melanie and her family are found and lined up on their knees. Melanie's grandfather, mother, and father are all killed. Melanie gets abused and raped by the soldiers and attempts to escape unsuccessfully. |
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| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | Days later, Thomas sees Melanie step off from a refugee lorry. She was left for dead, and found by retreating soldiers. Thomas embraces her but she is in a state of shock. The two take refuge under a staircase but are discovered in the morning by Russian soldiers assaulting the town. Thomas then tries to kill them with his knife, but there's no point. They start beating Thomas but stop when Melanie offers herself in exchange for Thomas. The soldiers agree and leave with Melanie. Thomas then picks up his knife while the soldiers are leaving, drunk. He hears Melanie scream and sees a soldier pursuing her up the stairs and shooting at her. Thomas runs up to protect her, reaches the soldier and stabs him, killing him. But Melanie is also dead.{{clarify|date=November 2015}} An anguished Thomas sits at a roadside on the edge of the destroyed town. A tank pulls up next to him and Tanya (Kincso Petho), a [[Commissar]], dismounts and sits next to Thomas. Tanya tells him that [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] provides for orphans and invites him to join on her journey back home. Thomas obliges and aboard the tank with Tanya heads towards Russia. |
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===1962=== |
===1962=== |
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Seventeen years after World War II, Thomas, now played by [[Ed Stoppard]], has himself become a Soviet soldier of |
Seventeen years after World War II, Thomas, now played by [[Ed Stoppard]], has himself become a Soviet soldier of officer rank. Among other things, it transpires that Thomas had been trained in a [[Suvorov Military School]] and later he was admitted into the [[Main Intelligence Directorate (Soviet Union)|Soviet Military Intelligence]], having served with distinction in the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]. Thomas then resigns from the military. No reason is given. In his apartment he boxes-up his belongings, which include military decorations, a painting depicting refugees and soldiers and many old photographs, several of himself and Tanya at the end of the war and standing outside the military school. But he gazes particularly at a photo of Melanie. Next it unfolds that Thomas has been recruited by the [[KGB]]. He sits in a briefing with two KGB Officers, Krivosheyev (Benedek Gulya) and Sokolov (Peter Kertesz) and is shown a film which features a former Nazi [[Gestapo]] officer denouncing his past and pledging allegiance to the [[USSR]]. Thomas is told that Albert Steiner, the man in the film, had become one of the [[KGB]] agents in London, but that he had defected to the British and subsequently vanished. As a consequence the rest of Steiner's London contacts were also under suspicion. Thomas is sent on a mission to London in order to join Steiner's former cell and to observe the loyalty of the agents within it. |
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Thomas arrives in London and after making contact with his controller Tally-Ho ([[Bernard Kay]]), a British man who communicates solely over a phone line, finds a room in a lodging house run by Neville ([[Ram John Holder]]), a Jamaican man. His niece Yvonne ([[Michelle Gayle]]) is living there also. Thomas is instantly drawn to Yvonne, a beautiful, warm spirited and fun-loving artist of the [[Beat Generation]], but keeps a safe distance as he focuses on his mission. He meets with his contact, Dennis ([[Bernard Hill]]), the main |
Thomas arrives in London and after making contact with his controller Tally-Ho ([[Bernard Kay]]), a British man who communicates solely over a phone line, finds a room in a lodging house run by Neville ([[Ram John Holder]]), a Jamaican man. His niece Yvonne ([[Michelle Gayle]]) is living there also. Thomas is instantly drawn to Yvonne, a beautiful, warm spirited and fun-loving artist of the [[Beat Generation]], but keeps a safe distance as he focuses on his mission. He meets with his contact, Dennis ([[Bernard Hill]]), the main organiser of Steiner's former cell. Thomas does not report any suspicions to Tally-Ho, though Dennis made some unorthodox comments, seemingly on purpose, and decides to watch Dennis further. Yvonne, pleasantly intrigued by Thomas, persists to get familiar with him. The pair form a bond and discover they share a passion for art as well as a mutual attraction. Thomas becomes more acquainted with Dennis after several more meetings and eventually the two men discover they both share a dream for freedom. Nevertheless, Thomas assassinates with professional expertise a former [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] Commander, as ordered by Tally-Ho. As Yvonne introduces Thomas to the London art underworld of [[Beatnik]] basement clubs and galleries the pair fall in love and form a meaningful relationship, whilst Thomas actually leads a double-life. Unknown to Thomas, he is being watched by Harris ([[Sean Chapman]]), a ruthless British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] officer, with links to Steiner, and answerable to Commander Bothringaye, a senior [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|civil servant]] who runs an autonomous security department. They decide to apprehend Dennis as the supposed leader not only of the spy-cell but also of a planned coup, in collaboration with local Communist groups. Thomas then receives an order from Tally-Ho to assassinate Dennis. |
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Thomas arrives at Dennis' house and Dennis instinctively understands what the situation is. After a long and disillusioned discussion about the existence and role of low-rank spy agents, Dennis considers running away and breaking contacts as useless, as suggested by Thomas, shoots himself in the mouth. Thomas is met by a new contact, Stephanie (Sybille Gebhardt), a stern and good looking East German agent, who informs Thomas that Dennis had been killed by the British Secret |
Thomas arrives at Dennis' house and Dennis instinctively understands what the situation is. After a long and disillusioned discussion about the existence and role of low-rank spy agents, Dennis considers running away and breaking contacts as useless, as suggested by Thomas, shoots himself in the mouth. Thomas is met by a new contact, Stephanie (Sybille Gebhardt), a stern and good looking [[East Germany|East German]] agent, who informs Thomas that Dennis had been killed by the British Secret police. Unsure whether he should mistrust Stephanie or the source behind her information, Thomas arrives later that night to meet Stephanie again but she does not turn up as she has been apprehended and now is brutally interrogated by Harris and Bothringaye. Nevertheless, Stephanie refuses to crack under their pressure. An agent in the interrogation pulls Stephanie off her chair and Harris instructs Stephanie to strip naked. She does as she is instructed and continues to defy breaking. Meanwhile, Thomas leaves the rendezvous, resigned to the belief that either Stephanie was a double-agent or that she had been captured. Harris and Bothringaye return to the room during the night and try to make Stephanie crack with another interrogation. They plant the idea in her head that Thomas had defected and was the one who had betrayed her. |
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Thomas decides that he must leave his post, as his position has become compromised in light of Stephanie's disappearance and of her inaccurate information regarding Dennis' death. However, he does not want to leave Yvonne and the life he has made with her. He also knows that not returning to the USSR would not be an option as it would be viewed as a defection. Thomas calls into Tally-Ho while he considers his options, but Tally-Ho orders him to break contact immediately, explaining that Stephanie had been deported and that he was in danger. As Thomas makes his way to a [[London Underground]] station he is followed - his pursuer being Krivosheyev, who suddenly corners Thomas, calls him a traitor and attempts to stab him. However, a British agent who had been following both of them approaches from behind and kills Krivosheyev with a poisoned dart. As Krivosheyev falls, Thomas makes his escape. Back in his lodgings, Thomas finds out from Neville that Harris left a note for him. The note suggests that they meet and talk over his problems. Thomas tells Yvonne his entire story and that he must leave. He shows her the photograph of Melanie and explains that for 17 years the photo was the only part of him that was 'real', but that now she (Yvonne) had made him feel 'real again'. At dawn Thomas on a remote air-strip has a rendezvous with Tally-Ho who is nothing other than Bothringaye. He explains that the British believed Thomas to be Dennis' successor, and so wanted him to defect. In order to persuade him to do so, they made the KGB believe he had already defected, by way of telling Stephanie and by killing Krivosheyev. |
Thomas decides that he must leave his post, as his position has become compromised in light of Stephanie's disappearance and of her inaccurate information regarding Dennis' death. However, he does not want to leave Yvonne and the life he has made with her. He also knows that not returning to the USSR would not be an option as it would be viewed as a defection. Thomas calls into Tally-Ho while he considers his options, but Tally-Ho orders him to break contact immediately, explaining that Stephanie had been deported and that he was in danger. As Thomas makes his way to a [[London Underground]] station he is followed - his pursuer being Krivosheyev, who suddenly corners Thomas, calls him a traitor and attempts to stab him. However, a British agent who had been following both of them approaches from behind and kills Krivosheyev with a poisoned dart. As Krivosheyev falls, Thomas makes his escape. Back in his lodgings, Thomas finds out from Neville that Harris left a note for him. The note suggests that they meet and talk over his problems. Thomas tells Yvonne his entire story and that he must leave. He shows her the photograph of Melanie and explains that for 17 years the photo was the only part of him that was 'real', but that now she (Yvonne) had made him feel 'real again'. At dawn Thomas on a remote air-strip has a rendezvous with Tally-Ho who is nothing other than Bothringaye. He explains that the British believed Thomas to be Dennis' successor, and so wanted him to defect. In order to persuade him to do so, they made the KGB believe he had already defected, by way of telling Stephanie and by killing Krivosheyev. Bothringaye / Tally-Ho is actually a triple-agent and Thomas merely a pawn in his game. Tally-Ho gives Thomas a new passport with some US Dollar bills as a hint and suggests that he disappear. |
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===1966=== |
===1966=== |
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While sitting in his car at a remote gas station in Mexico, Thomas notices two men observing him. He worries that they are government agents tracking him, but they eventually drive away. Yvonne returns to the car and she and Thomas drive off as well. |
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On a remote petrol station in Mexico, Thomas, sipping a Coke inside his car, gets suspicious and distressed by two men, a European and a Mexican, who pull up in a pickup behind him. They get out and stand there seemingly checking out his car and watching him. Thomas watches them, worrying about Soviet agents sent to kill him, or CIA or British sent to kidnap him. Before Thomas can react, the situation becomes more relaxed, the two men sipping their beers and, eventually, driving off on their truck. Yvonne is getting back from the petrol station store. They smile to each other. They kiss happily and drive off too. |
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== Cast == |
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* [[Tom Schilling]] as Thomas |
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* [[Bernadette Heerwagen]] as Melanie |
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* [[Suzanne von Borsody]] as Melanie's mother |
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* Lea Mornar as Astrid |
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* [[Ricci Harnett]] as Harry Stone |
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==Criticism== |
==Criticism== |
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Nick Hasted wrote in ''[[The Independent]]'', "Inspired by historical accounts that chronicle suffering within the Third Reich, cinema is starting to look compassionately at the Nazis", and, more specifically, "Reg Traviss's Joy Division, most remarkably, ignores the Holocaust, instead following a German boy soldier in 1944 through to his life as a Soviet spy in Sixties London, showing the subjective experience of German civilians as they're bombed by the British and raped by the Russians, and the savage situations its uncomprehending 14-year-old Nazi is subject to".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hasted |first=Nick |date=17 Nov 2006 |title=A subject for sympathy: Germany's rehabilitation |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-subject-for-sympathy-germanys-rehabilitation-424531.html |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |publisher=independent.co.uk |accessdate=1 Nov 2013 }}</ref> |
Nick Hasted wrote in ''[[The Independent]]'', "Inspired by historical accounts that chronicle suffering within the Third Reich, cinema is starting to look compassionately at the Nazis", and, more specifically, "Reg Traviss's Joy Division, most remarkably, ignores the Holocaust, instead following a German boy soldier in 1944 through to his life as a Soviet spy in Sixties London, showing the subjective experience of German civilians as they're bombed by the British and raped by the Russians, and the savage situations its uncomprehending 14-year-old Nazi is subject to".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hasted |first=Nick |date=17 Nov 2006 |title=A subject for sympathy: Germany's rehabilitation |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-subject-for-sympathy-germanys-rehabilitation-424531.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120903005314/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-subject-for-sympathy-germanys-rehabilitation-424531.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 September 2012 |newspaper=The Independent |location=London |publisher=independent.co.uk |accessdate=1 Nov 2013 }}</ref> |
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==References== |
==References== |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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* {{IMDb title|0462373|Joy Division}} |
* {{IMDb title|0462373|Joy Division}} |
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* {{cite book|title=Joy Division|date=2006|publisher=Youtube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-_-hceqSA}} |
* {{cite book|title=Joy Division|date=2006|publisher=Youtube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-_-hceqSA| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911063449/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-_-hceqSA| archive-date=2014-09-11 | url-status=dead}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Joy Division (2006 Film)}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joy Division (2006 Film)}} |
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[[Category:2006 films]] |
[[Category:2006 films]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:2006 drama films]] |
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[[Category:English-language films]] |
[[Category:English-language German films]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:English-language Hungarian films]] |
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[[Category:British war drama films]] |
[[Category:British war drama films]] |
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[[Category:German films]] |
[[Category:German war drama films]] |
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[[Category:Hungarian films]] |
[[Category:Hungarian war drama films]] |
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[[Category:Films scored by George Kallis]] |
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[[Category:Films set in the 1940s]] |
[[Category:Films set in the 1940s]] |
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[[Category:Films set in the 1960s]] |
[[Category:Films set in the 1960s]] |
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[[Category:2000s English-language films]] |
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[[Category:Films directed by Reg Traviss]] |
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[[Category:2000s British films]] |
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[[Category:2000s German films]] |
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Latest revision as of 00:57, 10 August 2024
| Joy Division | |
|---|---|
.gif) British quad format film poster | |
| Directed by | Reg Traviss |
| Written by | Reg Traviss Rosemary Mason |
| Produced by | Kim Leggatt |
| Starring | Tom Schilling Ed Stoppard Bernadette Heerwagen Bernard Hill Ricci Harnett Michelle Gayle Ram John Holder Sybille Gebhardt Marlon Kittel |
| Cinematography | Bryan Loftus |
| Edited by | Peter Cartwright |
| Music by | George Kallis |
Production companies | Kingsway Films Dreamtool Entertainment Hungarian Film Connection |
| Distributed by | Momentum Pictures (UK) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom Germany Hungary |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 |
Joy Division is a 2006 British-German-Hungarian film directed by Reg Traviss. The story is a fictional biopic which follows the life of a boy in Germany at the end of World War II into his adulthood in Russia and London during the Cold War. The script was written by Reg Traviss and Rosemary Mason and went into production in 2004 after completion of Traviss' short film JD Pilot in 2003, based upon the same script and which also starred Ed Stoppard in the role of adult Thomas. Joy Division was shown for the film industry at the Cannes Film Festival European Film Market and at the American Film Market in 2005. It was invited to screen at the Copenhagen International Film Festival in 2006 and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom in November 2006.
Plot
[edit]Thomas (Ed Stoppard), a young German, fights unsuccessfully as one of Nazi Germany's Joy Division youth troops after the Soviet Union invades. In the early 1960s, he loses faith in the ideals he was brought up with, and works as a spy and assassin for the Russians during the Cold War. His story is mostly revealed in flashbacks.
Tom Schilling plays the younger Thomas. His family is killed, leaving him orphaned, and with only his girlfriend Melanie (Bernadette Heerwagen) left.
His girlfriend Melanie is repeatedly raped by Red Army soldiers and she is eventually killed by a Soviet soldier after having sex with him and two other Soviet soldiers in order to protect Thomas from being beaten and killed by the soldiers.
Years later, he falls in love with Yvonne (Michelle Gayle), while on assignment in Britain; she has no idea what he is really employed to do.
Story
[edit] | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (January 2022) |
Joy Division is a drama set in the Second World War and in the Cold War as well. It is a non-linear story, told in a series of flashbacks to the mid-1940s and early 1960s, narrated in voice over from the film's present day setting of 1966.
1944/1945
[edit]In the eastern German province of Silesia, 1944, the war has barely hit the home front. Thomas, an aspiring teenage painter, and his girlfriend Melanie, are both members of the Hitler Youth. When the Eastern Front collapses, the boys in Thomas's Hitler Youth unit are drafted into the Volkssturm. After his family is killed in an air-raid, he is deployed to the front lines.
Facing annihilation at the hands of Soviet shock troops in a battle inside a factory. Thomas escapes as the sole survivor. Shell-shocked, he takes refuge in a bomb crater where he meets Astrid, a student-nurse foraging. Together they flee and join the mass exodus of refugees heading westwards, away from the advancing Soviet Army. Thomas and Astrid bond like brother and sister and rely on each other to survive. During an aerial attack they meet Karl (Thomas Darchinger), who informs them of an army evacuation transport pick-up post, which after weeks of walking they reach with other soldiers. Fighting for a seat on the lorries, they get separated. Astrid and Karl get aboard the last lorry. Left alone on the road, Thomas is seconded by troops into a last offensive. Fighting alongside a mish-mash of soldiers, including British Free Corps member Harry Stone, he fights for an aleatory success and little respite.
Meanwhile, Thomas's hometown is devastated by Soviet artillery and then attacked by Soviet troops who quickly overrun the town's weak defenses. The invading soldiers kill and loot. Melanie and her family are found and lined up on their knees. Melanie's grandfather, mother, and father are all killed. Melanie gets abused and raped by the soldiers and attempts to escape unsuccessfully.
Days later, Thomas sees Melanie step off from a refugee lorry. She was left for dead, and found by retreating soldiers. Thomas embraces her but she is in a state of shock. The two take refuge under a staircase but are discovered in the morning by Russian soldiers assaulting the town. Thomas then tries to kill them with his knife, but there's no point. They start beating Thomas but stop when Melanie offers herself in exchange for Thomas. The soldiers agree and leave with Melanie. Thomas then picks up his knife while the soldiers are leaving, drunk. He hears Melanie scream and sees a soldier pursuing her up the stairs and shooting at her. Thomas runs up to protect her, reaches the soldier and stabs him, killing him. But Melanie is also dead.[clarification needed] An anguished Thomas sits at a roadside on the edge of the destroyed town. A tank pulls up next to him and Tanya (Kincso Petho), a Commissar, dismounts and sits next to Thomas. Tanya tells him that Stalin provides for orphans and invites him to join on her journey back home. Thomas obliges and aboard the tank with Tanya heads towards Russia.
1962
[edit]Seventeen years after World War II, Thomas, now played by Ed Stoppard, has himself become a Soviet soldier of officer rank. Among other things, it transpires that Thomas had been trained in a Suvorov Military School and later he was admitted into the Soviet Military Intelligence, having served with distinction in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Thomas then resigns from the military. No reason is given. In his apartment he boxes-up his belongings, which include military decorations, a painting depicting refugees and soldiers and many old photographs, several of himself and Tanya at the end of the war and standing outside the military school. But he gazes particularly at a photo of Melanie. Next it unfolds that Thomas has been recruited by the KGB. He sits in a briefing with two KGB Officers, Krivosheyev (Benedek Gulya) and Sokolov (Peter Kertesz) and is shown a film which features a former Nazi Gestapo officer denouncing his past and pledging allegiance to the USSR. Thomas is told that Albert Steiner, the man in the film, had become one of the KGB agents in London, but that he had defected to the British and subsequently vanished. As a consequence the rest of Steiner's London contacts were also under suspicion. Thomas is sent on a mission to London in order to join Steiner's former cell and to observe the loyalty of the agents within it.
Thomas arrives in London and after making contact with his controller Tally-Ho (Bernard Kay), a British man who communicates solely over a phone line, finds a room in a lodging house run by Neville (Ram John Holder), a Jamaican man. His niece Yvonne (Michelle Gayle) is living there also. Thomas is instantly drawn to Yvonne, a beautiful, warm spirited and fun-loving artist of the Beat Generation, but keeps a safe distance as he focuses on his mission. He meets with his contact, Dennis (Bernard Hill), the main organiser of Steiner's former cell. Thomas does not report any suspicions to Tally-Ho, though Dennis made some unorthodox comments, seemingly on purpose, and decides to watch Dennis further. Yvonne, pleasantly intrigued by Thomas, persists to get familiar with him. The pair form a bond and discover they share a passion for art as well as a mutual attraction. Thomas becomes more acquainted with Dennis after several more meetings and eventually the two men discover they both share a dream for freedom. Nevertheless, Thomas assassinates with professional expertise a former RAF Commander, as ordered by Tally-Ho. As Yvonne introduces Thomas to the London art underworld of Beatnik basement clubs and galleries the pair fall in love and form a meaningful relationship, whilst Thomas actually leads a double-life. Unknown to Thomas, he is being watched by Harris (Sean Chapman), a ruthless British Secret Intelligence Service officer, with links to Steiner, and answerable to Commander Bothringaye, a senior civil servant who runs an autonomous security department. They decide to apprehend Dennis as the supposed leader not only of the spy-cell but also of a planned coup, in collaboration with local Communist groups. Thomas then receives an order from Tally-Ho to assassinate Dennis.
Thomas arrives at Dennis' house and Dennis instinctively understands what the situation is. After a long and disillusioned discussion about the existence and role of low-rank spy agents, Dennis considers running away and breaking contacts as useless, as suggested by Thomas, shoots himself in the mouth. Thomas is met by a new contact, Stephanie (Sybille Gebhardt), a stern and good looking East German agent, who informs Thomas that Dennis had been killed by the British Secret police. Unsure whether he should mistrust Stephanie or the source behind her information, Thomas arrives later that night to meet Stephanie again but she does not turn up as she has been apprehended and now is brutally interrogated by Harris and Bothringaye. Nevertheless, Stephanie refuses to crack under their pressure. An agent in the interrogation pulls Stephanie off her chair and Harris instructs Stephanie to strip naked. She does as she is instructed and continues to defy breaking. Meanwhile, Thomas leaves the rendezvous, resigned to the belief that either Stephanie was a double-agent or that she had been captured. Harris and Bothringaye return to the room during the night and try to make Stephanie crack with another interrogation. They plant the idea in her head that Thomas had defected and was the one who had betrayed her.
Thomas decides that he must leave his post, as his position has become compromised in light of Stephanie's disappearance and of her inaccurate information regarding Dennis' death. However, he does not want to leave Yvonne and the life he has made with her. He also knows that not returning to the USSR would not be an option as it would be viewed as a defection. Thomas calls into Tally-Ho while he considers his options, but Tally-Ho orders him to break contact immediately, explaining that Stephanie had been deported and that he was in danger. As Thomas makes his way to a London Underground station he is followed - his pursuer being Krivosheyev, who suddenly corners Thomas, calls him a traitor and attempts to stab him. However, a British agent who had been following both of them approaches from behind and kills Krivosheyev with a poisoned dart. As Krivosheyev falls, Thomas makes his escape. Back in his lodgings, Thomas finds out from Neville that Harris left a note for him. The note suggests that they meet and talk over his problems. Thomas tells Yvonne his entire story and that he must leave. He shows her the photograph of Melanie and explains that for 17 years the photo was the only part of him that was 'real', but that now she (Yvonne) had made him feel 'real again'. At dawn Thomas on a remote air-strip has a rendezvous with Tally-Ho who is nothing other than Bothringaye. He explains that the British believed Thomas to be Dennis' successor, and so wanted him to defect. In order to persuade him to do so, they made the KGB believe he had already defected, by way of telling Stephanie and by killing Krivosheyev. Bothringaye / Tally-Ho is actually a triple-agent and Thomas merely a pawn in his game. Tally-Ho gives Thomas a new passport with some US Dollar bills as a hint and suggests that he disappear.
1966
[edit]While sitting in his car at a remote gas station in Mexico, Thomas notices two men observing him. He worries that they are government agents tracking him, but they eventually drive away. Yvonne returns to the car and she and Thomas drive off as well.
Cast
[edit]- Tom Schilling as Thomas
- Bernadette Heerwagen as Melanie
- Suzanne von Borsody as Melanie's mother
- Lea Mornar as Astrid
- Ricci Harnett as Harry Stone
Criticism
[edit]Nick Hasted wrote in The Independent, "Inspired by historical accounts that chronicle suffering within the Third Reich, cinema is starting to look compassionately at the Nazis", and, more specifically, "Reg Traviss's Joy Division, most remarkably, ignores the Holocaust, instead following a German boy soldier in 1944 through to his life as a Soviet spy in Sixties London, showing the subjective experience of German civilians as they're bombed by the British and raped by the Russians, and the savage situations its uncomprehending 14-year-old Nazi is subject to".[1]
References
[edit]- ^ Hasted, Nick (17 November 2006). "A subject for sympathy: Germany's rehabilitation". The Independent. London: independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
External links
[edit]- Joy Division at IMDb
- Joy Division. Youtube. 2006. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014.
- 2006 films
- 2006 drama films
- English-language German films
- English-language Hungarian films
- British war drama films
- German war drama films
- Hungarian war drama films
- Films scored by George Kallis
- Films set in the 1940s
- Films set in the 1960s
- 2000s English-language films
- Films directed by Reg Traviss
- 2000s British films
- 2000s German films