El compromiso

Germany, 1941. Peter Faber, a private on the Eastern Front, and Katharina Spinell, a young woman from Berlin, marry by proxy without ever having met: he thus obtains leave to escape the horrors of war for a few days; she, a widow's pension should her new husband die. During his ten-day leave, Peter visits his new wife in Berlin; both are surprised by the genuine attraction that arises between them. When they must part ways, they exchange promises of fidelity and a future together. Peter returns to the frozen landscape, the blood, and the blind obedience, and only the memory of the few days spent with Katharina and the dream of a family life upon his return allow him to endure the horrors of the front. Katharina, urged on by her desperate and delusional parents, ruthlessly climbs the ranks of the Nazi party, binding her life, that of her young husband, and that of their unborn child to the regime. The couple's relationship unfolds through letters, silences, and increasingly brief and distant visits, and the couple becomes a mirror of a society trapped between the euphoria of power and the fear of falling.