Coming-of-age in East Germany, 1956, in surprising, wrenching ways: Lars Kraume's marvelous THE SILENT REVOLUTION

Ah, kids, and the things they can up to! What those of THE SILENT REVOLUTION get up to during their final year of high school in East Germany back in 1956 begins as something of a lark, as well as a genuine and sympathetic feeling for those young people active in the protests taking place in Communist-controlled Hungary. The Berlin Wall hadn't even been built back then, so access between East and West Berlin was easier than it would be a few years hence.

What a couple of students see during the newsreel portion of the screening they have snuck into in a West Berlin movie house -- footage of the Hungarian Revolution they would never be allowed to view in their home country of East Berlin, now controlled by the USSR -- influences them to talk their classroom into staging a couple of minutes of silence to honor the Hungarian protesters.

That's all. Nothing special. No big deal.

Based on a real situation that arose in this particular classroom, the movie -- directed and adapted (from the book by Dietrich Garstka) by Lars Kraume, shown above -- turns out to be one of the more compelling, engrossing and moving films I've seen this year.

In fact, the film is right up there with Oscar-winner The Lives of Others in the detailed manner in which it captures life under Communist rule: when anyone -- say, those two boys who go to the movie theater (Theo, played by Leonard Scheicher, above, and Kurt (Tom Gramenz, below) -- proves foolish enough to, even slightly, question that rule.

As the kids' two minutes of "solidarity" slowly becomes "counter-revolution," once the higher-ups -- from teachers to principal to government flunkies and ugly high-level bureaucrats -- become involved, things turn simultaneously ridiculous and frightening, as entire families' lives begin to disintegrate.

The Silent Revolution is particularly good at demonstrating the ways in which this Communist/Fascist bureaucracy invades and threatens the individual, and as this threat increases and the kids are further worn down, your blood will start to boil.

Herr Kraume refuses to make the students simply good or bad; all of them are mixed bags, managing wrong and right as best they can and for reasons that are genuine but sometimes flawed. They try their best to present a united front, but their masters engage in lies and betrayal to break them.

The student for whom all this takes the greatest toll is Erik (dazzlingly portrayed by Jonas Dassler, above and below, left), whose journey from belief to belittlement is excruciating and surprisingly moving. Getting to the truth is one thing but getting any kind of justice is quite another

The film's Spartacus-like climax is just fine, but it's the very final moments that seal the deal. "I'm getting goosebumps," my spouse exclaimed, as The Silent Revolution came to its brilliant, beautiful, breathtaking end. I think you will remember these kids and their predicament for a good long time.

From Distrib Film US and released via Icarus Home Video, the movie -- in German with English subtitles and running 111 minutes -- hits the street on DVD and via VOD this Tuesday, October 1 -- for purchase and/or rental.

German history made surprising and palpable in Lars Kraume's THE PEOPLE vs FRITZ BAUER

If you've see as many foreign films and documentaries as I, then you've most likely encountered a lot of movies about or centering around Adolf Eichmann. Not to worry: you'll never have seen one quite like THE PEOPLE vs FRITZ BAUER (Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer), the 2015 film from Lars Kraume just now reaching our shores. Eichmann -- that nasty Nazi nut who helped plan and execute the Holocaust that killed millions of Europeans Jews -- is greatly subsidiary here to the fellow who's front-and-center, the titular Fritz Bauer.

Herr Bauer, (as portrayed with steely fire and intelligence by Burghart Klaußner, above) became a prominent judge and prosecutor in post- WWII Germany, and was actually sent to a concentration camp early in his career for his political views and his fight against the Nazis. Although Bauer was a Jew, he was released from the camp (for reasons we learn toward the movie's end), which no doubt spared him the ovens. Emigrating to Scandinavia, he only returned to Germany after the Allies won the war.

This riveting and very surprising movie takes place in 1957, at a time when Germany was attempting, haltingly and not happily, to come to terms with its Nazi past (recently seen in another, more conventional German film, Labyrinth of Lies), as Bauer dedicates himself to rounding up as many Nazi war criminals as possible, both at home and abroad. He is blocked at every avenue by the powers-that-be (including, of course, Germany, but also the USA) and cannot even trust his own staff -- with, it seems, the exception of one justice-prone helper named Karl Angermann (played by the wonderfully versatile and compelling actor Ronald Zehrfeld (the sleazy Johnny in Phoenix and the kindly André in Barbara), shown above.

As directed and co-written (with Olivier Guez) by Lars Kraume, shown at right, the film is consistently intelligent, very well paced and given just enough style to make our journey an enjoyable and thought-provoking one. A kind of combination judicial procedural and mystery, the tale takes in the Holocaust, Jews, and civil rights of a sort not given much thought or care back in the 1950s -- an era in which everything from left-leaning politics to sexuality was hugely repressed.

TrustMovies cannot vouch for the veracity of the details of the tale told here: Is the character of Angermann created out of whole cloth? I suspect so, yet so convincing and moving is Zehrfeld's portrayal of the man, and so pivotal is Angermann to the idea of justice and sacrifice that the film pushes, that I suspect most audiences will gladly accept the tale as told, as we become engulfed in both the search and capture of Eichmann, as well as the repressed sexuality that finally must burst its seams.

The supporting cast (that's Lilith Strangenberg as an unusual cabaret performer, above) is used mostly for plot purposes, but the actors are all good enough to capture their characters with a few fine stokes. And for all of the time and energy devoted to uncovering that sexuality, what remains at the close of the film is a very strong sense of Herr Bauer as a man committed above all to fighting first the hiding and then the suppression of Germany's Nazi past. He was a hero, and this excellent film -- together with Herr Klaußner's memorable performance -- makes a fine and moving "movie" remembrance.

Beyond those two lead performances, the film lacks the depth for greatness, yet thanks to everything from its production design (Cora Pratz) to its cinematography (Jens Harant), it proves to be an extremely well-made and entertaining look back at an era in which growth and change were slow to begin but inevitable all the same. (Above, left, is Sebastian Blomberg, as one of Bauer's more devious adversaries.)

From Cohen Media Group and running a just-about-perfect 105 minutes, The People vs Fritz Bauer (in German with English subtitles) opens this Friday, September 16, in South Florida at Miami's Tower Theater and the O Cinema in Miami Beach; in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood 16, and at the Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth. Simultaneously, the movie will open in another dozen locations. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters listed.

Note: If you missed its theatrical run, 

the film will be released on Blu-ray and DVD 

come January 10, 2017.