Lost Transport (2022) User Reviews

Review of a slightly above average 1945 WW2 Story

[Userwritingreview · 5/10 · 11 March 2023]

The film starts off strong with a train, deporting hundreds of Jewish prisoners, that gets stranded near a small German village, occupied by the Red Army.

We hear a shot from the Red Army, then we see the dead body which was a family member from the village girl Winnie.

Later on, Jewish-Dutch woman Simone searching for bandages and food for her injured friend Isaac, strangely finds everything without any obstacles?

This would have been a great opportunity to show more tension and brutality.

By adding soldiers in her way or a person who is keeping her distant from entering the room.

Later on we see that it was Winnie's house that they found.

The 3 strangers, who are Russian sniper Vera, Simone, Isaac, now have a house that they share to eat and sleep.

Then an unexpected friendship emerges between Vera, Winnie and Simone.

I really appreciate the idea that a friendship emerges, but I think it was too quickly friendly to be realistic in WW2.

At the end of the film we see Isaac badly sick, Winnie betrays him and got him transferred to a nearby hospital where Simone checks on him. Vera also visits, the last visit she has Isaac grabs her rifle on his head.

He tells her in sub-text without saying anything , he doesn't want to suffer and a few days later Vera kills him.

Winnie sees all these actions happen, when Simone arrives at the hospital Winnie says nothing to her?

This would have been a great opportunity to have conflict between Winnie, Vera and Simone.

Having Vera and Simone fight it out, at the end of the fight they would be completely exhausted.

Later Simone would finally listen and understand why Vera did it.

This would make all 3 characters journeys come together which would be a great ending!

My favorite characters in the film are Isaac, Vera.

I thought all their scenes were my favorite overall.

Due to lost details and elaborations, the film is sometimes difficult to follow and understand clearly.

[movieman6-413-929510 · 4/10 · 21 April 2023]

The lost transport is a new war drama directed and written by Saskia Diesing, director of Nena en Dorst.

In the spring of 1945, a train with a hundred Jewish prisoners stranded near a small German village that had just been taken over by the Russians. The Dutch Jew Simone (Hanna van Vliet) tries to care for her sick husband and receives help from the Russian shredder Vera (Eugénie Anselin), whom she manages to hide in the house of the German maid Winnie (Anna Bachmann). The opposites now have to keep it together in the same place until the Americans can provide real security.

The story of the film is told in a mosaic fashion where each character has their own story, sometimes overlapping with each other. Despite these overlaps, the stories seem more detached from each other. This gives you three different stories to follow side by side. Because of this way of narration, the film can sometimes seem a bit unclear or it can sometimes be difficult to understand everything clearly.

At one moment the characters help each other, but at the next moment they can also betray each other and wish each other death, only to suddenly help each other again later. For example, the film sometimes remains somewhat implausible, when the mutual problems are suddenly quickly resolved without any real understandable consequences. Furthermore, the characters sometimes make illogical decisions, which are sometimes not always well worked out. Director Saskia Diesing could have looked a little closer at the details, because sometimes certain things don't match the time the story takes place in, which can also cause the film to lose some of its credibility.

Because of this less writing, the actors do not always come across clearly. The different characters from different countries also continue to speak their mother tongue, but the characters often know how to understand each other and also know how to negotiate nicely with each other. The background stories of all three main characters are also not all equally well developed. As a result, some decisions that are made sometimes remain difficult to understand.

BFFs after betrayal

[e-vandervelde · 8/10 · 30 April 2023]

Really liked the whole setting. Quite different from other WW2 movies. Could have been one of my favourites. That there are other aspects to handle in war than war is really interesting topic. Interesting to have a multi-luingual movie adds to the characters as well I'd say. Would like to have seen a bit more of the trip leading to the situation.

On the critics side: The relationship between the 3 feels quite forced to me. Having that was still okish. But that just days after somebody betrays your husband which leads to his death, becoming like BFFs right after just doesnt get into my head.

And why didnt she join on the boat but did go with the truck?