Directed by:
Andres VeielScreenplay:
Andres VeielCinematography:
Judith KaufmannComposer:
Annette FocksCast:
August Diehl, Lena Lauzemis, Alexander Fehling, Thomas Thieme, Susanne Lothar, Rainer Bock, Maria Dragus, Joachim Paul Assböck, Hark Bohm, Imogen Kogge (more)Plots(1)
West Germany in the early 1960s. The country is quiet – for the time being. Bernward Vesper takes up his studies in Tübingen where he is attending Walter Jens' seminar on rhetoric. Bernward wants to be a writer and spends his nights bashing the keys of a typewriter. At the same time he is keen to defend his father, the poet Will Vesper who was celebrated by the Nazis as a proponent of their 'Blood and Soil' ideology. The land where Bernward lives is being suffocated by its past. The war has only been over for fifteen years, old Nazis are back in positions of power, and nobody is prepared to talk about war crimes; the Republic is standing to attention. One day Bernward meets Gudrun Ensslin and her friend Dörte. Before long, the three friends are living together in a ménage à trois. But their three-way relationship doesn't last long. It soon transpires that Gudrun and Bernward are twin souls. This marks the beginning of an extreme relationship that is unquestioning and excessive, a love story that goes beyond the threshold of pain. Setting out together to conquer the world, the pair arrives in West Berlin in 1964 where they become part of the left-wing bo-ho set. When the Social Democratic Party agrees to form a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union, Bernward and Gudrun are not the only ones who decide to join the Extraparliamentary Opposition movement. Gudrun and Bernward become part of a social and political upheaval that soon takes hold around the globe: liberation movements, student protests and the Black Panther movement in the USA; drugs and rock 'n' roll. The course of history is inexorable but, at the time, for a moment, it looks as if it might be possible to change its path. If not us, who? And when, if not now? And then another man, Andreas Baader, appears on the scene... (Berlinale)
(more)Cast
Claudia Geisler-Bading
East Germany
Best movies:
No Place to Go (2000)
Cracks in the Shell (2011)
Barbara (2012)
Alexander Khuon
West Germany
Best movies:
My Words, My Lies - My Love (2009)
Lara (2019)
Nö (2021)
Peter Benedict
Switzerland
Best movies:
1864 - Brødre i krig (2014)
54 Hours (2018) (series)
Heartbeats (2010)
Andreas Döhler
East Germany
Best movies:
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Nö (2021)
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Bettina Redlich
Austria
Best movies:
Downfall (2004)
Nowhere in Africa (2001)
Die Kirschenkönigin (2004) (series)
Hubertus Hartmann
West Germany
Best movies:
The Lives of Others (2006)
Das Wunder von Berlin (2008) (TV movie)
Bis nichts mehr bleibt (2010) (TV movie)
Henriette Nagel
Best movies:
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Polizeiruf 110 (1971) (series)
A Bitter Pill (2019) (TV movie)
Markus Lerch
Best movies:
Beat (2018) (series)
The Stranger in Me (2008)
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Heike Hanold-Lynch
Germany
Best movies:
The Reader (2008)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Sven Gerhardt
West Germany
Best movies:
Never Look Away (2018)
Ku'damm 63 (2021) (series)
54 Hours (2018) (series)
Norbert Hülm
Best movies:
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Praxis mit Meerblick (2017) (series)
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Susanne-Marie Wrage
West Germany
Best movies:
Vom Atmen unter Wasser (2008) (TV movie)
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Flug in die Nacht - Das Unglück von Überlingen (2009) (TV movie)
Justus Carrière
East Germany
Best movies:
Race (2016)
Forwards Ever! (2017)
Allmen (2017) (series)
Conrad F. Geyer
Best movies:
The Speer and Hitler: Devil's Architect (2005) (series)
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 (2004)
Kathrin Wehlisch
East Germany
Best movies:
The Teachers' Lounge (2023)
I Was, I Am, I Will Be (2019)
Phoenix (2014)
Sophie Bogdan
Best movies:
If Not Us, Who? (2011)
Petra Hartung
Best movies:
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
The Reader (2008)
Ku'damm 63 (2021) (series)
Kai Holzapfel
West Germany
Best movies:
Valkyrie (2008)
Wolves of Berlin (2009) (series)
Go West - Freiheit um jeden Preis (2011) (TV movie)
Uwe Schmieder
Best movies:
If Not Us, Who? (2011)