Contrasting the warm embrace of young love with the genocidal cruelty of Nazism, From Hilde, With Love charts the life of Hilde Coppi, a resistance fighter who was arrested by the Gestapo, gave birth to her child in prison and was later executed. This is a quiet and grounded piece of work that nonetheless shocks with sharp and unflinching depictions of the horror taking place within WW2 Germany, perhaps acting as a conscious counterpoint to more baroque contemporary depictions of Nazi Germany such as Never Look Away.

Opening with Coppi’s arrest, her story is bifurcated into a strand following the march towards her murder, and a series of flashbacks documenting her work with the Red Orchestra resistance group and her intense relationship with fellow anti-Nazi operative Hans Coppi. Unwaveringly shot from Hilde’s viewpoint, there’s a valiant attempt here to illustrate the intricacies of opposing tyranny in a world where women are consciously sidelined. More than simple heroes pitted against Nazism, this is a complicated group with youth-oriented leftist vigour and a bohemian attitude that is nonetheless trapped within a strictly patriarchal value system. 

Effective though From Hilde, With Love is at telling this little-known story, that same strength of self-containment also makes for an airless experience with little thematic resonance outside of its concerns of the banality of evil. The shy and unprepossessing quality that Liv Lisa Fries brings to Hilde deserves a film with stronger convictions and a greater idea of why this story should be told in the first place. 

From Hilde, With Love is screened at GFT on Saturday 8 March as part of Glasgow Film Festival.