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Mirage Enterprises
Studio Babelsberg
The Weinstein Company
Not part of a collection.
Behind the mystery lies a truth that will make you question everything you know.
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
Alunauwie
Sep 30, 2025 · via TMDB
The Reader blends a controversial romance with post-war German guilt, presenting a layered, emotional story carried by powerful performances and thoughtful direction. Despite some logical gaps, the film succeeds in portraying personal and societal struggles through its characters' trauma and secrets. It’s a compelling watch for those drawn to slow-burning dramas with moral complexity. Read the full review here: (Indonesian version : alunauwie.com) and (English version : uwiepuspita.com)
badelf
May 23, 2023 · via TMDB
I didn't turn this movie off after the beautiful sex scenes only because two others were watching it with me. The mere fact that "Germans" were speaking English totally destroyed the whole "suspend disbelief" for me. This film is an awful rendition by Brits of an award-winning German book. Perhaps, only someone from the Nachgeborenen (to coin Bertolt Brecht's meaning of German post-Holocaust generations) should have made this film. The two stars are for Winslet and Kross. The rest sucks.
CinemaSerf
Jun 6, 2022 · via TMDB
David Kross is really effective in this tale of a young boy ("Michael") who encounters "Hanna" (Kate Winslet) as he shelters in her doorway from a rainstorm. In fairly short order, this fifteen year old boy becomes her lover; in return she gets him to read to her. He is soon infatuated and devastated when he turns up at her apartment one day to find her gone. Skip on thirty years or so and he - now Ralph Fiennes - takes over a retrospective of her story as we discover she was tried for being a particularly nasty Nazi prison camp guard and she is sentenced to life imprisonment. Throughout her internment, the two continued to correspond - he would send her tapes to aid in her learning to read... Stephen Daldry has created a delicate masterpiece here, I think. Winslet is very much on form as the story goes from a bit of sexual fantasy for the young man, through to a far darker, more horrific, second part. There is something unnervingly natural about Winslet's performance; from the playful and generous - though temperamental - lover for this naive young boy, then the odious and distinctly unrepentant, almost belligerent, woman at her trial. Despite that, somehow, Daldry manages to elicit just a grain of sympathy for her. Was she inherently bad or just inherently weak - or both? Did she crave for affection just as much as the young "Michael" did when they met? His story is one of emotional barren-ness growing up in a large family where his relationship with his father was distant and chilly and the young Kross really does shine in the role. There is plenty of sex at the beginning, but it's not gratuitous; it's exploratory - for both of them and that intimacy also adds richness to what is ultimately quite a sad tale that, though thought-provoking when it comes to the whole concept of forgiveness and reconciliation, did make me realise that so many people caught up in the Nazi machine were ill-educated and frightened. It's also worth noting the subtle role played by Bruno Ganz as his legal professor "Rohl". This is a character who proves to be a crucial conduit for the young man as he has to come to terms with what he thought she was, and what he now knows she became. The pace of this production is measured, the photography frequently intimate and lingering and the attention to the detail from the production designer also adds potency to this visceral and touching story that I really did find well worth a watch.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Ralph Fiennes
Michael Berg
Kate Winslet
Hanna Schmitz
David Kross
Young Michael Berg
Lena Olin
Rose Mather
Bruno Ganz
Professor Rohl
Jeanette Hain
Brigitte
Hannah Herzsprung
Julia
Karoline Herfurth
Marthe
Volker Bruch
Dieter Spenz
Alexandra Maria Lara
Young Ilana Mather
Fabian Busch
Hanna's Defense Council
Vijessna Ferkic
Sophie
Susanne Lothar
Carla Berg
Matthias Habich
Peter Berg
Burghart Klaußner
Judge
Sylvester Groth
Prosecuting Council
Jürgen Tarrach
Gerhard Bade
Florian Bartholomäi
Thomas Berg
Moritz Grove
Holger
Kirsten Block
Female Judge
Margarita Broich
Co-Defendant
Marie Gruber
Co-Defendant
Martin Brambach
Remand Prison Guard #1
Carmen-Maja Antoni
Prison Librarian
Heike Hanold-Lynch
Prison Guard
Linda Bassett
Ms. Brenner
Ludwig Blochberger
Student
Benjamin Trinks
Holger's friend
Brigitte Broch
Production Design
Chris Menges
Director of Photography
Roger Deakins
Director of Photography
Ann Roth
Costume Design
Stephen Daldry
Director
Claire Simpson
Editor
Jina Jay
Casting
Simone Bär
Casting
Jason Blum
Co-Executive Producer
Carl Woebcken
Co-Producer
Christoph Fisser
Co-Producer
Henning Molfenter
Co-Producer
Bob Weinstein
Executive Producer
Harvey Weinstein
Executive Producer
Anthony Minghella
Producer
Sydney Pollack
Producer
Nico Muhly
Original Music Composer
Lee Dichter
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Eric Hirsch
Sound Recordist
David Hare
Screenplay
At the Beginning of Summer
Åsa-Hanna
Forrest Gump
Apocalypse Now
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
American Beauty
Posel úsvitu
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Anatomy of a Murder
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Fried Green Tomatoes
Memoirs of a Geisha
All About My Mother
Class
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Talk to Her
Jules and Jim
Menace II Society
Walk the Line
Man on Fire
Ray
Dean Spanley
The Elementary School
The Motorcycle Diaries
A Time to Kill
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Operation Petticoat
Clueless
Set It Off
West Side Story
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Boiling Point
Spark
Fahrenheit 451
The Cider House Rules
La Chinoise
Long Dark Night
Helter Skelter
Northanger Abbey
Sleep Sweet, My Darling
It's the Heart That Dies Last
She's the Man
Pope Joan
The Bone Collector
Chopper
Seeking Sun Paths
Candyman
Absolute Power
Spider
The Secret of Moonacre
2 States
Hannah Montana: The Movie
The Eternal Sea
Kiss the Girls
Apt Pupil
The Grifters
The Greatest Hits
Borstal
Tell Me Softly
Live by Night
How to Be Single
Gigi
Force 10 from Navarone
Rita, Sue and Bob Too
The Elementary Particles
South Pacific
One Room Tenants
The Devil's Elixirs
Electric Blue
Criminal Justice
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Under The Greenwood Tree
All the Right Moves
Deep Water
All the King's Men
Varg Veum - Buried Dogs
When the Legends Die
The Nameless
Last Days
Der Rücktritt
Out of Bounds
BMX Bandits
Le Divorce
Ants in the Pants
Pride and Prejudice
Butterfly in the Typewriter
Byrd and the Bees
Suzanne
Gino: A Child of War
The Shawshank Redemption
The Silence of the Lambs
Truth & Treason
Where Hands Touch
Nuremberg
Conspiracy
Notes on a Scandal
Lolita
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
The Mustang
Bent
Fifty Shades Freed
Lady Chatterley's Lover
The Crush
“Wuthering Heights”
Shining Through
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Aftermath
Maria's Lovers
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Good German
Dec 10, 2008
New York City, New York
Jan 30, 2009
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The Stranglers - Live '78, SF
1978
Saddle Leather Law
1944
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
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