With A GERMAN YOUTH, Jean-Gabriel Périot explores the divide in 1960s-70s Germany between the Capitalist establishment and young progressives

Listening to the intelligent and thoughtful words of journalist Ulrike Meinhof  (yes, later to become co-leader of the infamous Baader-Meinhoff group) during a German television interview in the late 1960s is eye-opening.

Meinhof made such good sense then -- truthful, pointed and highly progressive --  just as her words continue to resonate in our current times that one cannot help but wonder from where and when a more current American version of Baader-Meinhof will finally appear. Her words will also make you ask how Ms Meinhof progressed (or depending on your viewpoint, devolved) into what Baader-Meinhof eventually became.

One of the greats gifts of Jean-Gabriel Périot's 2015 documentary, A GERMAN YOUTH (Une jeunesse allemande) -- finally getting a well-deserved theatrical release via Big World Pictures -- is that we here in the USA can at last get a look at Ms Meinhof's life and beliefs in more than the standard, cookie-cut approach (oh, she was one of those crazy, Commie, ultra-left-wing terrorists!) we've heretofore seen and heard.

The other, perhaps not quite so positive, gift is that M. Périot has created his documentary entirely by editing preexisting visual and sound archives. Nothing here is original to his film (except of course the film itself): no present-day interviews with those ever-present talking heads, no narration to connect it all together -- just the archival material.

This is double-edged. Initially it works quite well, pulling us in and making think and re-think. But as the documentary rolls along, particularly toward its end, it begins to spin a bit out of control, with some if not much of what we see and hear making less connectible sense. (This was the experience had by TrustMovies; you may fare better if you have more acquaintance with and understanding of German and European history.)

In addition to what we see and hear of Meinhof, we also see snipitts of students/revolutionaries Andreas Baader (above, right) and Gudrun Ensslin (below), filmmaker Holger Meins, and the lawyer for the group, Horst Mahler. Filmmaker Périot is also able to give us some understanding of the period 20 years after the Nazis, by which time West Germany had becomes a kind of arm of the USA and its brand of Capitalism, an era in which the German youth of the title grew further estranged from its parents' generation out of guilt, anger, shame -- and perhaps some hope of making real change. As we have now seen and experienced here in the USA, as in most western "democracies," after more than a half century, good luck with that change, kids.

The film makes fine reference to the collusion of church and state, of state and media, and to the difficulty of tying politics to art (or vice versa) -- particularly back in 1960s/70s Germany. We see bits and pieces of the Baader-Meinhof 's "terrorism," its capture, imprisonment, and supposed suicides ("inconvenient" prisoners such as the recent Jeffrey Epstein may pop into your mind at this point). The movie should act, for some of us anyway, as a salutary, necessary reminder of the ways in which history is always written by the victors.

And if the documentary does spins a bit out of control, it comes together very nicely at the finale, which features Rainer Werner Fassbinder doing what he always did best. Running just 93 minutes, in German, French and English, with English subtitles as needed, A German Youth opens this Friday, October 11, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills, expanding on October 14 to Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7, Town Center 5 and Claremont 5 theaters. Click here and then scroll down to check if other cities and theaters have been added of late.