At the time when Berlin was declared “Jjudenfrei” (officially “free of Jews”) in 1943, there were about 7,000 Jews still secretly residing in the capital of the Third Reich. They survived by hiding in attics, basements, warehouses, and sometimes disguised in plain view walking among their fellow Germans. Using an assemblage of personal interviews, fictionalized re-enactments, and archival footage, The Invisibles is a gripping documentary/narrative hybrid about the inspiring resourcefulness, resiliency, and courage shown by teenagers and young adults living in dire conditions with an uncertain future. The inventive structure of the film allows us to hear the stories of four survivors, as compellingly told in their own words, and then to see the action dramatically depicted by a talented cast. Hanni Lévy, a homeless woman who goes to the movie theater every day for safety and escapism, Eugen Friede is a 16-year-old who is sheltered by communist families and joins the resistance, Ruth Arndt finds work as a maid and nanny for a sympathetic Nazi colonel, and brilliant art student Cioma Schönhaus (Max Mauff from Bridge of Spies, in a starmaking turn here), learns to expertly forge passports for other Jews. Cinematographer Jörg Widmer (Pina) beautifully captures the look of 1940s Berlin and brings the dramatizations to vibrant life. — Tien-Tien L. Jong
Since the early '90s, Claus Räfle's body of work, distinctive through its modern journalistic approach and visual sophistication, has been noted by jurors and TV critics for its signature humor and laconic narrative style. Many of his almost 40 feature-length TV documentaries, on which he has also served as writer, are distinct through their unconventional perspective, thoroughly entertaining in the best sense of the word, and have found their way across borders. His satirical TV documentary, Die Heftmacher, was praised by the jury of the German Grimme Award as the most important work of TV journalism in that year. His video clips from the 1990s garnered lots of attention with their pointedly told stories. Räfle developed and wrote The Invisibles with Alejandra López.
