Events

All films are in person at The Cranford Theater 

Director: Stefan Bühling
Language: German
Running time: 88 minutes

It is a story about courage and resistance, about pride, dignity and trust as well as about a woman’s unshakeable love for her husband and his work: the ARD drama Martha Lieberman – A Stolen Life. The year is 1943: the artist’s widow Martha Liebermann is threatened – like all Jews in Germany – with deportation to a concentration camp. In her apartment, that she hardly ever leaves, art treasures hang on the walls – works by her husband, Max. The elderly lady is assisted by her maid Luise (Lana Cooper) and a group of resistance fighters. Her daughter Käthe had already immigrated to the USA five years earlier. Martha Liebermann stayed in Berlin because she didn’t want to leave her husband’s paintings. The artist’s wife could not have imagined that the situation in Germany would actually get that bad and therefore did not flee with her daughter. When things became more and more dangerous for Jews, Martha Liebermann applied for emigration to Switzerland and Sweden, despite her concerns about the pictures. However, because her accounts were frozen by the Nazis, she cannot raise the sums required for emigration. Her helpers suggest selling pictures, but that’s not an option for Martha Liebermann. Director Stefan Bühling shows the secret and dangerous deployment of the resistance fighters around Hanna Solf (Fritzi Haberlandt) as well as the great loyalty of the non-Jewish housekeeper Luise to her boss in haunting images and almost chamber play-like scenes. When the Gestapo visits Martha Liebermann, Luise bravely, almost carelessly, opposes the men. The relationship between Martha and Luise plays a special role in the film. In the gloomy apartment of the painter’s widow, the women stick together – until Martha makes a hard decision to protect Luise, who is now considered a traitor and is also threatened. When the Gestapo put the painter’s widow on the deportation list, a race against time began.

Ticket Price:  $18/film, Member/Senior Ticket Price: $15/film
Series Price (5 films): $85, Member/Senior Series Price: $70

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