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France, Switzerland, Germany · 2015
1h 33m
Director Jean-Gabriel Périot
Starring Harun Farocki, Philip W. Sauber, Holger Meins, Helke Sander
Genre Documentary
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Responding to anticommunist sentiment in post-war Germany, a group of young, radical leftists established the Red Army Faction. Using archival footage of agitprop, public tv, and a staged conversation between Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his mother, director Jean-Gabriel Périot exposes the ideological and generational conflicts that fomented the violence that would define the group's legacy.
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
The pace is too rapid for any nonexpert to absorb or glean the significance of all the details, which Périot generally leaves unexplained. But this documentary is fitfully thought-provoking, and particularly good at illustrating political fault lines of the time.
Utilizing news footage, TV programs, crude activist films and the like, Périot (always his own editor) builds his arguments almost invisibly, guiding the viewer while trusting his audience to use their heads. How refreshing to have a director refuse black-and-white conclusions, knowing that formulating questions is the best way to probe the past and its ramifications.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
With no commentary beyond audio clips and visuals composed almost entirely of historical footage, Periot uses the radicals’ own images and words to show how their discourse evolved over ten years from progressive to militant.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Fiendishly researched and smartly constructed, A German Youth is a formidable piece of documentary detective work focusing on a small but significant historical moment that continues to matter.
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