This incredibly boring film, adapted from Owen Sheers’s novel, attempts to show us what life may have been like for Welsh citizens if the Nazis had successfully invaded Britain during the Second World War.
Although far from an original set-up, the idea of life during the take-over of a country could have been used to make an interesting examination between personal values and issues of safety and duty. Instead first-time feature director Amit Gupta gives us a turgid and depressingly lifeless romance between a young Nazi (Tom Wlaschiha) and a farmer’s wife (Andrea Riseborough).
The theme of conforming to a set of ideals in order to make life easier is a topical debate and, at times, is interesting enough to stop this becoming entirely unbearable. But it’s hard work to stay interested in the characters or situations they find themselves in.
The Blu-ray and DVD have been jacketed to look like a thrilling action war movie. It is nothing of the kind. There’s very little dialogue or action, and although this is not necessarily a bad thing, instead we get to stare at a lot of grey countryside and people looking upset for an extended period of time. I couldn’t wait for it to end.
Resistance (2011), directed by Amit Gupta, is distributed in the UK on Blu-ray disc and DVD by Metrodome Distribution, Certificate 15.
