Nebel im August

Firstly, I'd like to give my interpretation of what the title "Fog in August" means, since a previous reviewer was rather baffled at the title. The "fog" (nebel) was the deception employed by the administration when continuing the T4 (euthanasia) programme even though it had "officially" been abandoned by the Nazis. The "August" is the summer - the season that the film was obviously set in.

The two nurses are worthy of a mention here because they defy the stereotype: one, the hatchet-faced Catholic dogmatist is the true humanitarian. The other, an attractive, sweet talking and easy-going blue eyed young woman, is the reliable child killer, using raspberry juice to keep the lethal dose of barbiturate down. On the other hand, the medical director is a man who seems determined to see his projects through with efficiency no matter what the cost - the epitome of a Nazi stooge stereotype (but a well defined and well acted one).

The children were portrayed brilliantly. There are touching and realistic moments here that don't descend into sentimentality and help you to empathize with the victims rather than merely sympathize.

This film is difficult to watch but it has to be, because it's portraying an event in history many people would rather not contemplate. An event that occurred at a time when many people went mad in the wake of recession and populist extremism. It's a warning from history put into film. And it's a well acted and considered warning at that.

I don't actually know why the movie is called "Fog in August" as that image is never referenced in the movie. It is taken from the eponymous book it's based on, perhaps it is explained there.

The historical backdrop of the movie is "T4", the Nazi campaign to kill those deemed "unworthy to live" because they were handicapped, suffered from a psychiatric condition or -- in many cases -- were just unruly or even merely unpopular with the authorities. The film acts as a docudrama, trying to get some historical facts across while narrating the coming of age-story of Ernst Lossa, a around fourteen-years-old rapscallion. In real life, his father was eventually murdered by the Nazis because he was a traveling artisan.

The film creates some dramatic tension by pitching two nurses against each other in an unlikely fashion. Stern-looking "mother superior" Sophia is a devout catholic who does the right thing by trying to protect her wards, while doe-eyed sister Edith acts as the angel of death, killing children on command by giving them raspberry juice mixed with barbiturates.

There is nothing wrong with this movie, and it has a great cast to boot. On the other hand, it's simply another moral showcase about Nazi evils, and you have to be somewhat masochistically inclined to watch it voluntarily. I'm worried that a large part of German cinematic production these days is uninspired "propaganda for the right cause". Hopefully, this movie will inspire many viewers to research the history of T4 on their own.

A horrible and dark subject. Urgent and yet reserved. Around 1940 little Ernst was admitted to a mental hospital. The diagnosis: "not educable". But in the institution the patients are systematically killed. A process that is supposed to help rid the German race of hereditary diseases in the Third Reich. A film that is badly affected and gets under the skin.

I am a nurse, I feel sick in My stomach. Just reading that the doctor and nurse doing All these killings of children and adults, just got maximum 4 years in prison, and still could work as a nurse after the prisontime. It is disqusting, these murderers should have gotten life in prison or the death penalty.

A great movie, in nazi Germany told from a childs point of view. How horrible some humans can be. The involuntary euthanasia program in Nazi Germany was one of the worse things in the history of Germany. So many children killed, children that clearly could live a long life in good care, but nazi Germany needed money for their warmachine, not using it on mental sick People. So killing them was cheaper and as the nazi also believed, making their Country free of handicapped and mental sick persons. But as we All know, being a Nazi is the most mental sick you can be...

Considering the horrors of both the euthanasia program as well as the mass-murder of romani people and disabled in nazi-germany and the fact that we don't hear that much about this part of history, Nebel im August (Fog in August) has an important role to play. What could've been over-blown melodrama is a rather simple story about a young boy in the cold, isolated german hospital. The portrait is filled with authentic looks, almost to the point of feeling a bit flat but Ivo Pietzcker as the lead fills the film with a glow. It's sometimes crippled by a hamfisted storytelling, but does manage to convey an interesting image of the nazi program without feeling too didactic, proving that there's still important stories from this time in history worth telling on screen.