The Aftermath

Set in the winter of 1946, The Aftermath follows Rachael Morgan as she arrives in the bombed-out ruins of Hamburg to reunite with her husband Lewis, a British colonel tasked with overseeing the city's reconstruction. The arrangement he has made without consulting her comes as a shock: the couple will share their grand new home with its former owner, a German widower named Stefan Lubert, and his troubled daughter Freda. In a household where former enemies are forced together, the resentment and grief between them gradually give way to more complicated feelings.

James Kent directed the film, working from a screenplay by Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel, with Ridley Scott among the producers. It sits between Kent's earlier period dramas Margaret and Testament of Youth and the features that followed in the 2020s. Keira Knightley plays Rachael, with Alexander Skarsgård as Stefan and Jason Clarke as Lewis; supporting roles include Martin Compston and Kate Phillips.

Released in March 2019, the film is a German, British and American co-production. It earned about 9 million dollars worldwide against a relatively modest scale, and drew mixed-to-average ratings from both audiences and critics: on IMDb it holds 6.4 from roughly 26,000 votes, on TMDB 6.4 from around 740 votes, while critics rated it 5 out of 10 across 156 reviews.