Lukas Miko

There’s irony in the title of the German film Stella: A Life (Stella. Ein leben), a dramatic thriller that looks at the Holocaust from an out-of-the-ordinary perspective. Many dramatic films depicting the Holocaust treat the setting as though it’s a history lesson, giving it a reverent patina. Director Kilian Riedhof tears through the streets of Berlin with urgency, terror and suspense, coming up for air in brief spurts. Riedhof, who co-wrote the screenplay with Marc Blobaum and Jan Braren, insists on flesh-and-blood action, and the realism is intense. Viewers will feel the violence.