this isn not another sear look at the holocaust but rather an intimate story about the event that take place on a small street in berlin and some of the people that be involve . this film start in the present time in new york city where ruth weinstein ( jutta lampe ) be in mourn over the death of her husband and family member have all gather to her side . ruth daughter hannah ( maria schrader ) slowly learn that her mother be raise by an aryan woman name lena fischer ( doris schade ) and so she travel to germany and locate the 90 year old who tell her about the event on rosenstrasse . spoiler alertlena talk about berlin in 1943 where the gestapo would hold all the jewish spouse in a building on rosenstrasse street even though they be suppose to have immunity for be marry to aryan and for nine day a group of woman would wait outside and shout for their release . eight year old ruth ( svea lohde ) await for her mother to come out and have nowhere to go but she meet 33 year old lena ( katja riemann ) who take her in . lena husband fabian ( martin feifel ) be also inside and eventually she try to socialize with nazi officer to get them to do something . this film be direct by margarethe von trotta who be make her first feature film in almost 10 year after work in television and while this be clearly not one of her more provocative effort she remain one of the most revered director in europe . this be not one of those nazi film where we view horrible act of inhumanity to jew although we do see some severe treatment be issue out but instead this be more of a retelling of a small event that mean life and death to the people involve . this film isn not try to shock anyone or open the door to debate on the circumstance but what it simply want to do be just shed a light on a small but true life event that occur during an historical period . part of the film strength come from it actor and there be some good performance that shine through especially by riemann and young lohde and it always good to see schrader ( aimee and jaguar ) in a pivotal role . this isn not a great film or something that go to change your perspective on wwii but consider that innocent life be put to death because of the event that take place i think that reason alone be important enough to retell this true story .