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Before the Fall

Country: Germany, Language: German, 117 mins

Original Title

Napola - Elite für den Führer
  • Director: Dennis Gansel
  • Writer: Dennis Gansel; Maggie Peren
  • Producer: Viola Jager; Harald Kugler

CGiii Comment

Prepare yourself for a fine piece of work.

There is so much between the lines - and, that is solely down to skillful direction.

Gansel should be commended - he has co-created a script that leaves his opinions on the outside.

A time when people who thought they were right - although they were wrong, told from the perspectives of the people then by the people now.

It really is that good.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) - high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls, seeing this as his ticket out of factory life to university and a good salary. During his year in seventh column (fifth form), this innocence is altered as Friedrich encounters hazing, cruelty, death, and the Nazi code. His friendship with Albrecht, the ascetic son of the area's governor, is central to this education; a night in the forest hunting for escaped Russian POWs brings things to a head.

Cast & Characters

Max Riemelt as Friedrich Weimer;
Tom Schilling as Albrecht Stein;
Jonas Jagermeyr as Christoph Schneider;
Leon A. Kersten as Tjaden;
Thomas Drechsel as Hefe;
Martin Goeres as Siegfried Gladen;
Florian Stetter as Justus von Jaucher;
Devid Striesow as Vogler;
Joachim Bissmeier as Anstaltsleiter;
Michael Schenk as Sportlehrer;
Justus von Dohnanyi as Gauleiter Heinrich Stein;
Claudia Michelsen as Frau Stein;
Julie Engelbrecht as Katharina;
Johannes Zirner as Torben Send;
Gerald Alexander Held as Friedrichs Vater