Im Schatten der Macht" is a film about the last days of Willy Brandt as Chancellor of Germany.
The discovery that his personal assistent Gunter Guillaume was a DDR-spy was the direct cause of his downfall.
"Im Schatten der Macht" is a TV movie that is relatively unknown, despite the fact that from an historical perspective the subject matter is rather interesting.
One possible comparison is with the, much wider known, film "All the president's men" (1976, Alan J. Pakula). Both films are about an espionage scandal ending the career of a political leader. In the case of Watergate however the president of the United States actively tried to cover up the affaire. In the Guillaume affaire Willy Brandt was more the victim than the perpetrator, although Guillaume was left in function after the first suspicions arose in order to gather evidence.
Another possible comparison is with films dealing with other subjects from German history from the 70's. For example films about the Baader Meinhof gang ("The Baader Meinhof complex", 2008, Uli Edel) or the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes during the Munich 1972 Olympic games ("Munich", 2005, Steven Spielberg or "September 5", 2024, Tim Fehlbaum).
A last possible comparison is with films about Cold war espionage in a divided Germany, the most famous example being "The spy who came in from the cold" (1965, Martin Ritt), although this film is situated in the late '50s / early 60s.
At the beginning of this review I called the Guillaume affaire the cause of Willy Brandts downfall. This is not entirely correct. A better description would be to call the Guillaume affaire an inducement or occasion for his downfall.
The fact that the personal assistent of the Chancellor is a spy is not automatically the political responsibility of the Chacellor himself, but maybe even more that of the Minister of Internal Affairs Hans Dietrich Genscher. He is the one who is responsible for screening candidates for confidential positions.
The interesting part of the film is in my opinion how very quickly the emphasis shifts from the spy Gunter Guillaume to Willy Brandts weaknesses with respect to booze and women. At the same time the emphasis shifts from the DDR to Brandts eager crown princes, all of whom of course keep up the appearance of loyalty. Willy Brandt however is experienced enough to know better "When they don't butcher the spy, they will butcher me.".
