Hilde is a sumptuously mounted biopic about Hildegard Knef, the iconic German actress-chanteuse who also became a best-selling author.

In Berlin of the early 1940s, the highly ambitious but politically naive Knef does everything she can to become a star. Making her way in the film world, both during and after the war, she swaps her Nazi lover for a young Jewish husband. Hollywood beckons, but Hilde’s dubious history means that she’s denied good roles, despite the talent she displayed in the 1946 German classic Murderers Among Us. When she returns to Germany, Hilde again exercises poor judgement by appearing nude in the film The Sinner and scandalising a prudish public. In the role of a lifetime as Hilde, the talented Heike Makatsch (Aimee & Jaguar) unifies all the contradictions and bad behaviour by portraying a woman who heedlessly pursues her goals and careers, barely acknowledging the feelings of others.