FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE
(Original Title: In Liebe, Eure Hilde)
Germany (2024) 125 mins.
Genre: Drama
Directors/writers: Andreas Dresen
Cast: Liv Lisa Fries (Hilde Coppi), Johannes Hegemann (Hans Coppi)
Screening 23 September 2026 at Swindon Arts Centre
Synopsis
In 1942 in Berlin, Hilde joins rebel anti-Nazi group Red Orchestra and falls in love and marries Hans Coppi. But after a wonderful summer together, and with Hilde now pregnant, they are captured by the Gestapo. In this story based on real life, Hilde’s ability to cope with the horror of prison life, an uncertain future, and then the fate of her newborn child is inspirational.
Reviews
“From Hilde, With Love doesn’t rely on grand spectacle or heavy-handed drama to make its point. Instead, it quietly immerses us in the final months of resistance fighter Hilde Coppi’s life, finding strength in understatement and human detail.
Set against the backdrop of Nazi-era Berlin, the film explores themes of defiance, love, and sacrifice through a restrained yet emotionally resonant lens.
Liv Lisa Fries is magnetic as Hilde, her performance deeply felt but never showy. With minimal dialogue and little music, she carries the film with a stillness that makes every glance, every silence, feel meaningful.
Andreas Dresen’s direction is intimate and observational. Rather than focusing on political ideology, he foregrounds the everyday courage of someone who simply could not look away.”
Fries gives a wonderfully nuanced performance, her expressive eyes working overtime. She expertly uncovers the strength and resilience behind Hilde’s shyness, sliding from pinched awkwardness with the resistance group to fierce love for her fragile baby son Hans Jr, born after a tense, life-threatening labour in prison.
As her baby’s hand pats her face, you can see Hilde’s principled resistance to her captors warring with her longing to stay with him at any price.
From Hilde feels tidy and complete, speaking like its heroine with a soft still voice about the importance of love, and the deep need to do something right, no matter how small, to defy corrupt, monstrous regimes.
Film Facts
- The term Red Orchestra was coined by the Gestapo, who referred to the German resistance radio operators as “pianists” and their supervisors as “conductors.”
- This disparate network consisted of over 150 Berlin Nazi opponents from various backgrounds, including artists, scientists, workers, and students, who were united by their rejection of National Socialism.
- The couple’s son, Hans Coppi Jr., was raised by his paternal grandparents and became a historian dedicated to preserving the memory of German resistance to the Nazi regime.