_Ah yes, my first review on this website that I had no idea existed until yesterday because I wanted a better version to IMDb is a review for a Nazi sympathizer film..._

_**Sigh... This is going to be a very interesting review**_

I actually wrote a review for this monstrosity on IMDb, but for some reason it won't appear on my profile... So I'll just write it here instead!

"Where Hands Touch" is a 2018 historical fiction film taking place in Nazi Germany in 1944, starring Amanda Stenberg as the main protagonist and George MacKay as her literal Nazi boyfriend!

(_Yayyyy! So **fun!**_)

Anyways... Let's drive straight into the utter mayhem that is the plot of this film!

Leyna is a biracial teenager (she's an Afro German) living in Nazi Germany. It's 1944 and somehow Leyna and her family isn't dead even tho her skin is clearly black. While wandering through the streets of Berlin (somehow not being caught), Leyna meets Lutz, a cute German teenager who's the same age as her... Who's also in Hitler Youth and has a Nazi father. You would think that Leyna and Lutz would be enemies (she's a biracial teenager living in a country where the only political party is trying to kill everyone who isn't white, while he's literally **apart** of that political party that is trying to kill everyone who isn't white), but nope, not at all. Leyna and Lutz somehow develop a **literal romance**

As a history nerd, I've obviously learned the topic of World War II a lot (and I mean **a lot**), but obviously, since I am not German nor Polish nor from any of the countries that experienced the Holocaust, I don't know a lot about the topic of the Holocaust. So I got my Berlin-based online friend, Kiara (or Cxnnxmxn as she's known online), to educate me on some things about the Holocaust, Germany during that period, what the Nazis did to Jews and the Poles, ect.

What's interesting about Kiara is that she isn't just German, she's actually Half **German** Half **Polish**, with a German father and a Polish mother. Meaning, that she is a descendant of **both** the Nazis and Holocaust victims. Hell, her grandfather was a literal nazi sympathizer who absolutely despise her parents' relationship because of her mother's nationality. Despite this, they got married because he died, and that's how Kiara was born. So, big thanks to Kiara for helping me with this review ^^

Not only does this film openly **want** you to make you sympathize with these disgraceful human being we call the Nazis, but it also glorifies them. It's giving us the message that "**nOt aLL nAziS wErE bAd So We ShOuLd SyMpAtHiZe WiTh ThEm**", which _**might**_ be true, but that doesn't mean we should sympathize with **all** of them. Hell, Lutz isn't even one of the good Nazis. He's openly pro-Hitler, pro-war, pro-Nazi, pro-Axis, anti-Allies and anti-semetic. There's this one part where he doesn't like the smell of the concentration camp Leyna was sent to, but that doesn't mean he's automatically anti-concentration camps. I'm pretty sure he's just anti-smell of the concentration camps and anti-Leyna being in a concentration camp. I'm just way to tired to even cover the chaos that is this film's plot, if you wanna know the entire plot while not watching it, watch Graysons Projects' video on the film titled "WHY Are There So Many Nazi Sympathizer Movies?? | Where Hands Touch"

I literally don't understand all the good reviews at all. Like, did the people who wrote good reviews for this dumpster fire accidentally watch the satirical masterpiece that is Jojo Rabbit? Or did they think that it's just "SaTiRe" like my favorite anime, Hetalia (which, is also a satirical masterpiece). Like bruh... Everyone I've met or seen that has watched this film (except Kiara and Graysons Project) has only **positive** things to say about

Okay, to be fair, it's okay for a German man to fall in love with a Polish woman (just ask Kiara). And it's also okay for a German man to fall in love with a Jew. **And** it's also okay for a German man to fall in love with a **biracial** person just like what happened with Leyna and Lutz. Obviously, love has no limits when it comes to race, religion or gender (it does have limits to age and species tho). However, the only time it is **not** okay for a German to be inlove with a biracial is when the German is a legitimate **Nazi**. The only characters I liked in this abomination is Leyna's mom, since she's the only character here that actually has a **brain**

_**Ugh... I'm just so tired of stuff like this... At this point I'm gonna be re-watching Bee And Puppycat and Hetalia for the rest of my life**..._

Link to Graysons Projects' video - https://youtu.be/QI9jD0IrI-c

I’m a big fan of Amma Asante films which give me stories from a different perspective that has usually been swept under the carpet by history, mainly because the protagonists are black Africans and as most of European history has more or less ignored any contribution by them it is up to Amma and her contemporaries to shine a light on these stories that are often fascinating and amazing. In particular A United Kingdom which was frankly a superb film. Unfortunately into each life a little rain must fall and Where Hands Touch is a steady downpour.

The story is in itself fiction but is based on fascinating historical fact which few people were aware of prior to the film. Where this film falls far from it’s Asante stablemates is the frankly unnecessary and unbelievable love story that drives us through that period in history. Even more galling when the two ‘lovebirds’ are played by the very capable Amandla Stenberg and George MacKay.

None of the main actors, which include Abbie Cornish and Christopher Eccleston, are helped by the cod-German accents throughout the proceedings giving the whole thing a distracting ‘Allo ‘Allo feel about it. The Death of Stalin and The White Crow both prove there are ways around this that audiences can put up with. Eccleston in particular is all over the place with his von Smallhausen accent that if nothing else draws you out of the unfolding story.

This is not to say that as the tale moves along the average viewer will not be fascinated by the plight of these children that did live in Germany during the war years. They are less likely to be beguiled by the good Nazi and he extols pride in his country, slaughtering Russians but loving the black girl. I found nothing particularly believable in his characterisation and therefore everything he did had a whiff about it.

Overall When Hands Touch is a disappointing entry to her list of creations for Asante, not awful, just not as good as her other work. Whether it was constraints of time or trying to shoehorn an interesting narrative into a piece of history that had no recorded stories I do not know but somehow the whole thing felt rushed.

Some scenes seem almost like padding, with long conversations that go nowhere and drive at nothing and the acting does get patchy from character to character but that may have been the accents.

The less said about the incredulous Spielbergian ending the better, the film wants to be a love story with hard-hitting truths about the war but then stumbles at the final fence.