🎬 Christopher and His Kind (2011): Berlin, Boys, and the Brutal March of History
Berlin, 1931. Young English writer Christopher Isherwood lands in the city of freedom, temptation, and rising fascism. In search of love and inspiration, he writes, falls for a boy, and tries to outrun the world falling apart.
Based on the true memoir by Christopher Isherwood, this film tells the real story of a young writer who escaped to Berlin in the 1930s – chasing boys, love, and freedom, just as the Nazi shadow began to fall over Europe.
So here’s Matt Smith – yes, the same one from Doctor Who – playing Isherwood, a soft-spoken Englishman who escapes to Berlin for “the boys,” as he openly admits. And that one line sets the tone for the whole film: honest, a little cheeky, and painfully aware of what’s coming.
Christopher isn’t some fiery revolutionary. He’s a watcher, a feeler, someone torn between being a tourist in a collapsing world and actually trying to change something. He wants to write, to love, to breathe – and not be judged for any of it. Spoiler: Berlin doesn’t stay that kind of place for long.
Then comes Heinz – tender, vulnerable, and beautiful in that quiet way that makes your heart crack a little. Their love is real, awkward, shy, and clearly doomed. You know it. They know it. That’s why it hurts so good.
And then, the tornado known as Jean Ross (Imogen Poots). She’s the emotional cigarette burn on the edge of every scene – stylish, cynical, hilarious, tragic. She doesn’t walk – she flirts with gravity. Her line “One’s always alone, duckie” says more than any monologue ever could.
Wystan Auden (Pip Carter) is the clever poet friend, spitting sarcastic one-liners and emotional truths like darts: “I used to be a little in love with you.” Ouch, and true. He’s the conscience Chris pretends not to hear.
Gerald Hamilton, the shady gent in a wig, is like if Oscar Wilde ran out of luck and into Weimar Berlin. Camp, tragic, and always scheming, he floats somewhere between comic relief and quietly broken ghost.
📍Berlin: The Lover and the Killer
Berlin is not just a city here – it’s a character. A lover. A drug. A knife. People fall in love, get lost, sell their bodies, sip absinthe and dance in drag – all while swastikas quietly start replacing posters on walls.
🎬 It’s All in the Details – Christopher And His Kind (2011)
The production nails it. Nothing’s glossy. The rooms are dim, the streets are wet, the clothes are worn. You can smell the desperation, feel the jazz, and hear the boots coming. It’s not overproduced – it’s lived-in. And it works.
💔 Not a Movie – A Goodbye Letter
Christopher and His Kind doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to. It lets the story breathe: one man, one boy, one time and place that shouldn’t have happened – but did. This is a film about quiet love, missed chances, and what it means to remember when others forget.
If you’re looking for a flashy romance, move along. But if you want something tender, queer, and historically sharp – something that whispers truth instead of screaming it – then yeah, this is for you.
