THE POSTCARD BY MIKE SORRINNI
Written by Mike Sorrinni / Reviewed by Adva Reichman
In the early days of Nazi Germany, one soldier is forced to choose between the Jewish woman he loves, and his role in the SA. As the political climate worsens, Rudi’s now secret girlfriend, Elise, and her family suffer by the hands of the Nazis. Rudi uses his status to try and protect them, but rumors about his involvement with a Jew won’t stop surfacing and endangering them all.
Rudi’s mother, Maria, supports his relationship with Elise and tries to help Elise’s family herself. Albert, Rudi’s father, on the other side, completely embraced the Nazi ideology and turned his back on Elise’s family. As the story continues we learn that the two fathers served together in WWI and that at some point, Elise’s dad saved Albert’s life.As the Nazis gained momentum, Albert replaced his gratitude with hate and forbade Rudi from seeing Elise.
Rudi tries to navigate his way in both worlds, but they eventually collide. A surprising postcard from an anonymous sender tells him to run. Scared, Rudi has a choice to make. Will he choose Elise or his duty? And what can he even do to save everyone involved under the suspicious eye of his father, commander and fellow soldiers?
‘The Postcard’ is a thrilling painful story about love and hate, life and death and everything in between during one of the darkest times this world knew.
I was hooked from the beginning and didn’t want to stop reading. The characters were well developed, especially Rudi whose struggles and doubt shaped the story. The screenplay had great pacing and its rhythm made it easy to read.
The dialogue can use some help and I recommend finessing it to create greater impact, but the story itself is clearly there and works very well. There are a few key moments/scenes where the writer can improve by further developing in order to truly hit and elevate the emotions the reader should feel.
Thus, creating a strong emphasis on tension, fear, action and the characters’ emotional arc. An example would be Rudi standing up to his father at the end, his escape from the officers in the street and later with joseph.
The love story worked beautifully. I do wish we could have seen more of Elise’s struggles, her resentment to his official role and her fear of Rudi leaving her for that. A heartbreaking lovers quarrel can up the stakes and create more pressure on Rudi’s choices and actions. Especially if the street encounter with Elise’s dad while being surrounded by other officers, will follow that raging fight.
The families’ relationships, their past and lack of gratitude, the fear and humiliation on both sides, all affected me as I was reading, and I was eager to see where and how this is going.
Being Jewish and having family who unfortunately lived in Germany during WWll, make stories like these especially important to me. I hold them to a high standard because they deal with a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. ‘The Postcard’ did a beautiful job displaying the cruelness people had to face, but also shed light on the humanity that kept them alive.
The writer did a marvelous job with this script, and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.
