Resistance (2008)

In Resistance, Owen Sheers toys with historical what-ifs, envisioning Britain in 1944 crumbling beneath Nazi occupation after the failed Normandy invasion. Complicating the lives of the beleaguered women in a desolate northern valley is German Captain Wolfram. He doesn't strum the mandolin, but his kindness and thirst for tranquility softens 26-year-old Sarah's resistance and challenges her allegiances to her missing husband and her country. Sheers must know some steely women, because his languid first act soon gains traction when he artfully explores the secrets of Sarah's indomitable heart amidst the arbitrary and inevitable cruelty of love and war. B+