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Germany · 2006
1h 37m
Director Michael Verhoeven
Starring
Genre Documentary, Drama, History, War
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The Wehrmacht museum exhibition which traveled around Germany in the 1990s pushed back against the popular German narrative suggesting the atrocities committed during WWII were done by a select evil few. This documentary examines the popular reactions to this exhibit placing culpability on ordinary German soldiers as well.
The film eventually becomes one long therapy session for the German nation as it struggles to understand how its brave and good soldiers could have done such bad, bad things. We, the viewers, are forced to take on the uncomfortable role of therapist.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The reckoning with the past, which has occupied West German society since the 1960s, has been painful and divisive, which makes the calm, empirical spirit of this film all the more impressive.
Superb documentary.
The cumulative evidence that genocide could not have occurred without the cooperation of the German army is overwhelming.
It is a painful but important subject, to be certain, but the film dilutes its own effectiveness by devolving into a collection of talking heads who often seem to be repeating each other.
Friendship. Love. Murder.