Think it was tough being a Jew in Germany during World War II?  Try being a lesbian Jew.  That’s the basic theme in Max Färberböck’s Aimée & Jaguar, a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film earlier this year.  As in The Tao of Steve, there isn’t anybody named Aimée or Jaguar in the film – they’re pen names used by two women having an illicit affair amidst the almost constant bombing of Berlin.

Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader) spends her days working for a pro-Nazi newspaper in order to give important information to the Jewish underground, while her evenings are spent with a close-knit group of fellow lesbians.  Felice is a confrontational smart-ass who isn’t afraid to push the envelope when it comes to her sexuality or her religious beliefs, causing a friend to say that she’s “lost all sense of danger.” In fact, the only time Felice seems uncomfortable is when her grandmother prods her about an imaginary fiancé.

When Aimée opens, we see Felice at an orchestral concert with her pal, Ilse (Johanna Wokalek).  Ilse works for Lilly Wust (Juliane Köhler), the beautiful, bourgeois wife of a Nazi soldier.  Before the concert is interrupted by the city’s air raid sirens, Felice longingly gazes at the seemingly unobtainable Lilly from afar.  She decides to write Lilly a steamy love letter, anonymously signed “Jaguar,” which Lilly assumes is from one of the men she sees while her husband fights in Eastern Europe.  Through Ilse, the two women meet and begin to spend more and more time together, ultimately beginning a torrid affair.

But Lilly still doesn’t know that Felice and her friends are Jewish; she just assumes they’re banded together because of their alternate lifestyle.  The first sexual encounter between Felice and Lilly is quite breathtaking.  Färberböck does a great job at capturing Lilly’s first nervous foray into lesbianism, as well as Felice’s cautiousness at becoming involved in a potentially dangerous relationship.

Aimée also succeeds in its portrayal of 1943 Berlin.  People think nothing of greeting each other with a friendly “Heil Hitler.”  There is also an interesting scene where an affluent woman sells food stamps to Felice and her gal pals in the bathroom of a posh club.  “Exciting times, aren’t they?” she snidely asks the women after charging too much money.

In addition to the Golden Globe nomination, Aimée also won the top acting prize (shared by the two leading ladies) at the Berlin International Film Festival, which, ironically, is where the film is set.  The film was written by Färberböck and Rona Munro (Ken Loach’s Ladybird Ladybird), who based their script on the Erica Fischer novel.

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