Before the Fall

A film set in an elite Nazi school during the war. Friedrich is the son of a working family. He boxes and is expected to go into the factory. He is noticed at a bout. The head of a school makes him an offer: he will be admitted, and in return he will fight for the boxing team. His father refuses permission. The boy signs the paper himself and goes. The school is disciplined and showy. Uniforms, morning parades in a castle, fencing and weapons training. Albrecht is an exception there. He is the son of a regional governor; slight, quiet, fond of writing, and no good at fighting. The two become friends. From there the film is a story of fitting in. Friedrich rises, gets into the team, wins medals, and the distance from his father grows. Then one night there is an exercise. An order is given to fire on prisoners said to have escaped into the forest, and the truth comes out. Albrecht cannot shoot. His father learns of it and hardens towards his son. What the narrative is interested in is not ideology but the manner of paying: two boys resist the same system by two different routes and both lose. The boxing matches are the narrative's measure. What Friedrich does in the ring is constantly set against who he is outside it. The school is drawn from a real kind of institution. The production shows in detail what these schools were and how they worked. Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Devid Striesow and Justus von Dohnányi are in the cast. Dennis Gansel directed and co-wrote. Who it is for: anyone who likes drama from recent history and stories set in schools. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a complicated view; the narrative marks out good and bad early and some scenes are too explicit.