Juliane Köhler (Downfall) stars in this heartrending thriller about a Norwegian woman leading a dangerous double life in the chaotic final days of the Cold War. She plays Katrine, a Norwegian woman raised in an East German orphanage after the Nazis stole her from her mother. Years later, so it seems, she managed to escape and track down her mother and now, in 1990, Katrine finds herself at the heart of a happy, bustling Norwegian family. But when a young lawyer calls, determined to recruit her in a claim for compensation from the new German state, Katrine is forced into a desperate struggle to conceal the lies on which her whole life is based.

Two Lives is a gripping story of deception based on a real unsolved case. Köhler delivers a moving performance as Katrine, a woman torn between conflicting loyalties, while screen legend Liv Ullmann makes a rare appearance as Åse, the proud grandmother whose daughter is not what she seems. Shot through with nerve-jangling suspense, Two Lives shines a light on a forgotten corner of the Cold War and asks how much is real when a life is built on lies.

Alistair Daniel
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Official German submission for Best Foreign Film, 2014 Academy Awards®

Presented in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut Irland