I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany: A bizarre, real-life fever dream

Wait, she's actually in this?

Most people who watch I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany are going to be confused within the first ten minutes. It’s not exactly a documentary, and it’s not quite a scripted drama either. It’s Isobel Lillian Steele playing herself, re-living her own nightmare in front of a camera. It feels like a weird, grainy stage play that someone decided to film because they wanted to make sure everyone knew their side of the story. If you’re looking for a smooth, polished historical account, you’re going to hate this. If you want to see a woman try to process real trauma by turning it into a movie while the actual war is still a brewing storm in the distance? Well, you’ve found it.

There is this moment where she’s holding a little yarn doll she made in prison. It’s supposed to be her 'fetish of hope.' The way she grips it, you can tell she’s not really acting. She’s just tired. It’s a small detail, but it’s the only thing that makes the whole movie feel grounded.

The rhythm is all over the place

The pacing is honestly a bit of a mess. One minute we’re at a high-society party in Berlin, and the next we’re in a dark cell for what feels like an eternity. The transitions are abrupt, like the editor just gave up halfway through a scene. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Scandal Sheet, but with way higher stakes and a lot more dread.

• The newsreel footage at the start feels tacked on, like a history lesson from a teacher who is bored out of their mind.
• The dialogue is stiff. Like, really stiff. Nobody talks like that, even in the 1930s.
• The prison scenes are surprisingly bleak, which is probably the only time the movie feels genuinely honest.

It gets better once she actually gets locked up. The social climbing stuff in the first act is such a chore to sit through. You can practically feel the movie trying to convince you that these parties were glamorous. They weren't. They just look like people standing around in rooms waiting for something to happen.

Is it worth your time? Only if you like movies that feel like a historical artifact. It’s not a 'good' movie by standard metrics, but it’s a weirdly compelling document of a person trying to scream for help. Watching the Statue of Liberty pop up at the end is almost funny in how heavy-handed it is, but man, you can’t help but root for her to just get home already. It’s a bizarre, uneven, and totally singular experience.