BASED on the best-selling book by Bernard Schlink, The Reader is already hotly tipped for Oscar glory.

The film opens in post-Second World War Germany when teenager Michael Berg (David Kross and Ralph Fiennes) becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna (Kate Winslet), a stranger twice his age.

When Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her, the two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair.

Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left heartbroken and confused. Eight years later, while Michael is a law student observing a Nazi war crime trial, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life – this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna’s past is revealed, Michael uncovers a deep secret that will change both of their lives.

It is a haunting story about truth and reconciliation, and how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another. From the start, novelist Schlink had imagined Kate Winslet for the pivotal role of Hanna Schmitz, the tram worker who has an illicit affair with a teenage boy and later is revealed to have been a concentration camp guard hiding yet another terrible secret.

The actress, five-times Academy Award-nominated, seven-times Golden Globe nominated, Emmy Award-nominated, BAFTA, Grammy and Screen Actors Guild winning, recalls: “I’m a relatively slow reader, but I just could not put it down and finished it in one day. The Reader is directed by Stephen Daldry, who directed The Hours, from a script by David Hare.