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Franka Potente plays Hilda

Why did you take this role?

What I found appealing and something I can personally totally relate to is being a person that lives in two worlds. I spend a lot of time in America due to work and personal reasons as well as in Germany. Over the past eight years I've found myself perceived always as the outsider – sometimes I'm the German in Hollywood, at other times I am the exotic European – I am whatever they want me to be. I understand being torn between two languages and how that affects the content of what you say.

Hilda has a British mother and a German father. The interesting thing about her is she seems to combine the conflict, the war, within herself. In the beginning she's someone that wasn't really very political, at least not very outspoken about it – her brother was outspoken about it and died. There's a delay in the journey she makes but Hilda gets her moment. She gets to stand up. She gets found out. She is not that typical hero but then she has to explain herself. This is what I like about the movie. It's not typical. The question of whether she's German or British doesn't get solved. She's both!

Is it uncomfortable going back to this time?

In Germany anything that has a hint of tradition or the recent past – you don't really want to touch it. It's all scarred in a way and the debris is still there.

Do you think Hartenstein did what he did through guilt at being a part of the Nazi regime?

I was arguing with Ken about this. I just said: "Who knows why he did it? Maybe he was feeling guilty." I said even though he's not "a Nazi", he worked for the Nazis. Where do you draw the line? I am convinced now that what counts is the choice you make in the short amount of time that you have. This is what I like about this situation – there's someone who can make that choice, who would have been totally protected if he'd decided differently but he didn't. It was the more uncomfortable choice in the end but he made it anyway. It came from a person who must have had some kind of conscience inside. This is how conflicts can be solved.