Directed by:
Oliver HirschbiegelCinematography:
Judith KaufmannComposer:
David HolmesCast:
Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner, Johann von Bülow, Felix Eitner, David Zimmerschied, Rüdiger Klink, Simon Licht, Michael Kranz (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
During Hitler's anniversary speech on November 8, 1939, a man is arrested on the Swiss border for possession of suspicious objects. Just minutes later, a bomb explodes in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, immediately behind the Führer's lectern, killing eight people. The man is Georg Elser (Christian Friedel), a carpenter from Königsbronn in the Swabia region. When a map of the site of the assault and detonators are found on him, he is sent to the head of the Criminal Police in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaussner) and the head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller (Johann von Bülow) to be questioned. From them, Elser learns that his attempt has failed – that the man he wanted to kill in order to stop the bloodshed of the World War that had just begun, has left the Bürgerbräukeller 13 MINUTES before the explosion. For days, Elser is interrogated by Nebe and Müller, for days, he holds out against their questions. Until he finally confesses and relates the story of his deed.
Thus, Elser remembers how National Socialism slowly metastasised in his home village. How he attempted to oppose it, together with his best friend Josef Schurr (David Zimmerschied) and a few others. How he met Elsa (Katharina Schüttler), fell in love with her, but because of his plans had to turn away from her, his friends and his family. And how, finally, he acted: How he built the bomb, and installed it at the site in long nights of work. He, who acted all on his own, as he again and again swears to Nebe and Müller, who torture him in order to find his instigators. After the interrogation, he is brought to the concentration camps Sachsenhausen and Dachau, where Georg Elser is finally murdered, on Hitler's personal order, on April 9, 1945; only days before the war ends. (Mongrel Media)
(more)Reviews (2)
Oliver Hirschbiegel stepped out of the bunker into the shadows to depict the motives of one of many would-be assassins who, despite their efforts, let Hitler fulfill the adage: “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” The act of a pacifist lone wolf, long exhibiting signs of conspiracy, isn’t the central theme here. Rather, it’s the human disillusionment with the events around him and the bubbling courage of an individual to do something about it. A lot of people could have spared themselves the nerves, worries, and even their lives if old Alois had, during a sudden tension in the summer of 1888, dealt with this defective batch with a few hand movements over the corner of a kitchen cloth. But can we be sure that someone with similar views wouldn’t have taken his place, someone who might have made fewer mistakes leading to defeat? Maybe it was all meant to be. Even the bomb, which the target didn’t wait thirteen minutes for.
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The well-known German director Oliver Hirschbiegel has made a nice tribute to an extraordinarily brave man with a high standards of morality, who was just one step short of making a significant impact on the course of world history. A brave man is not one who fears nothing. He is the one who, in spite of his fear, is determined to act. And that is exactly the kind of man woodworker and watchmaker Johann Georg Elser was. (80%)
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