Edelweisspiraten

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 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.

In many ways, a genuine oddity. It's a period film, yet made with a very modern, handheld shakycam style, where you can barely tell what's happening, as most of the action is missed by the camera whipping past it. Some of the sound is poor, so you have to rely on subtitles, even if you can understand the German. Despite these obstacles, there are some fine performances trying to get out, and it's a heart-rending story of survival in the face of adversity that makes you very glad that you haven't had to live through it yourself. Probably worth a look for German language fans and WW2 completists, but a tough proposition for general film watchers.

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.

I only heard about the Edelweiss Piraten very recently so I was very curious about the movie, as the the rating of this movie on IMDb wasn't particularly high. I must say I am very glad having ingnored it and following the experience that German history is best served from German movie makers. The fact that the story is being told by a genuine former EdelweissPiraten-member Jean Jülich gives the authenticity of the movie very much credit, as well as the camera. The story is being followed by the viewer always from the point of a direct atendee of the scene which really adds to the dramatic effect. My rating would be 8.7, therefore i choose 9