Edelweisspiraten

While the title makes it sound like a combination of The Sound of Music and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, this is actually a serious film about the real-life Edelweiss Piraten, a loosely organized gang of German anti-Hitler youth who harassed the Nazis and hid Jews and others who were in trouble.

It's the last days of World War II, bombing raids are nearly a daily threat, but the Nazis are still very much in charge. The youths use the bombing raids as cover for their guerrilla activities, and not all of them survive. Both they and the people they are protecting are constantly in danger, especially when, like the main character, they have gung ho Nazi sympathizers in the family.

The characters are half-starved and living in rubble, but they still manage to keep their integrity and fighting spirit, all the more remarkable, since they would have spent most of their lives under Hitler.

In the end of World War II, in the bombed Köln, the teenager Karl Ripke (Iwan Stebunov) lost his old brother in the war while his father is fighting in the front. His younger brother Peter (Simon Taal) belongs to the Hitlerian Youth while Karl belongs to the gang Edelweiss Pirates that fight against the Nazis and steals food supplies for their families. Karl has a crush on his sister-in-law Cilly Serve (Anna Thalbach), who raises her daughter and her son with his brother alone. When Karl finds the German prisoner Hans Steinbrück (Bela B. Felsenheimer) wounded in the middle of wrecks, he hides the man; later, Hans saves Cilly's little son and she lodges him at her home in return. Meanwhile, Peter discovers that his father was not pro-Hitler, leaves the Hitlerian Youth and joins the Edelweiss Pirates. Hans becomes a leader of the group and teaches the youths to use weapons and organize an armed resistance. When Hans is betrayed by a former pal, the Gestapo chases the Edelweiss Pirates, forcing Karl to take a difficult decision to save his brother.

"Edelweißpiraten" shows a sad historic event about a group of youngsters in Köln that were against the regime of Hitler. The story is simple and very dramatic, with great direction, performances and locations. The importance of this production is not the story itself, but to disclose to the world that there were many people in Germany that opposed to the cruelty of the Nazis and that were tortured and destroyed like enemies. The characters are not Jews or allies, but Germans that did not agree with the Nazi Party. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Irmãos de Guerra" ("Brothers of War")

A very interesting and realistic bit of history about German society during the Nazi regime,specifically the brutality of the SS in the last year of the war and often overlooked domestic resistance to the dictatorship. It's "realistic" because it's a true story. It's also a low budget production. Yet the acting is solid and they managed to assemble period correct vehicles, clothing, uniforms, props and sets. Technically the only disappointment are the hand held digital cameras instead of shooting it on film. Then again it looks better than a 16MM film. Once the story gets going I stopped noticing how it was shot. The only missing element is the famous assassination of the SS chief in Cologne that sets up the last part of the story. It's an odd omission. But the film is based on the personal recollections of a member of the Edelweiss Pirates. So perhaps he was not privy to any first hand knowledge of that courageous act of resistance. Nonetheless it's a film that provides viewers with some rare insight into a part of German society that opposed the Nazis during the years of that brutal dictatorship. It's an aspect of WWII history that isn't explored by enough films on that subject.

Wartime propaganda in North America painted all Germans as evil but it seems that finally enough time has passed since the end of the war that films can explore more subtle story lines. Not all Germans were Nazis and the stories of those Germans who just tried to survive and even some who went beyond and protested the war through their dress and activities are not well known. This film does an admirable job of showing daily life amidst the ruins of Cologne in the closing months of WWII. Short of food and hope, gangs of anti Hitler-youth who call themselves 'Eidelweiss Pirates' listen to French underground jazz music and fill their days with mild acts of protest against the state. Eventually these teenage kids are drawn into the underground through personal circumstance to do their part to terminate the war in any way they can, perhaps foolishly and without forethought but with as much belief in their cause as their Hitler Youth counterparts. Truly a groundbreaking piece of film and a story that needs to be told. The film does suffer from being a bit slow moving, especially at the beginning, and the final scene is overwrought, but these are minor complaints.

A Steady Cam master class that reflects the gritty realism of this true story. For most of this film there is very little light just the dark sad facts of the WW2 end times in 1945 Germany as it collapses to the occupation by the Allies.

The young actors do a great work reflecting the difficulties of living under a dying third Reich. Fight scenes between the Edelweiss Pirates and the Hitler Youth as well as the Gestapo are well done for a company clearly keeping an eye the finances!!

Nico Von Glasow - Brucher has clearly learned a lot from his training with Fassbinder with some excellent intimate camera shots and the same plaudits to Kristin von Glasow whose script tells a true and well told story.