“Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” conveys what it must have been like to be a young, smart, idealistic dissenter in Nazi Germany, where no dissent was tolerated.
This gripping true story, directed in a cool, semi-documentary style by the German filmmaker Marc Rothemund from a screenplay by Fred Breinersdorfer, challenges you to gauge your own courage and strength of character should you find yourself in similar circumstances.
Julia Jentsch plays a university student arrested for disseminating anti-Nazi leaflets in “Sophie Scholl.”
Scholl, whose story has been told in at least two earlier German films (Michael Verhoeven’s “White Rose” and Percy Adlon’s “Five Last Days”), is regarded today in Germany as a national heroine.The movie follows the last six days of Sophie’s life, after she and her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) are arrested at Munich University in February 1943 for printing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. Their arrest takes place in a political climate of panic and denial after Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad.
The Scholl siblings belong to the White Rose, a tiny resistance movement at Munich University. The pamphlet they distribute in the university’s empty halls, while classes are in session, declares that the war cannot be won and urges Germany to sue for peace. They naively hope to ignite a spontaneous student rebellion.
But the Nazi attitude toward the reversal of Germany’s fortunes on the battlefield is one of enraged denial. The shrill accusations leveled against Sophie and two of the other accused in the interrogation room and in court by the fulminating judge, Dr. Roland Freisler (André Hennicke), have a tone of desperate, hysterical fury.
The film pointedly steers away from unnecessary melodrama and sentimentality to deliver a crisp chronology of events told entirely from Sophie’s perspective, with minimal back story. As the brother and sister race to distribute the leaflets, the movie refuses to underline the built-in suspense. Apprehended by an alert janitor just as they are blending into a milling crowd of students, they are hustled to Gestapo headquarters and interrogated separately.
As Sophie undergoes the first grueling hours of minute cross-examination by Robert Mohr (Alexander Held), an icy, contemptuous criminologist with a mind Columbo might envy, she maintains a remarkable composure, insisting that she is apolitical.
Sophie wins the first round of this cat-and-mouse game and is about to be released when investigators searching her apartment turn up more incriminating evidence. At each turning point, Sophie, who is deeply religious, prays to God for help.
We meet Sophie’s sympathetic cellmate, Else Gebel (Johanna Gastdorf), an avowed communist, and Sophie’s supportive parents, who cheer her on in a subdued, wrenching farewell.
Jentsch’s portrayal of Sophie is the more impressive for its complete lack of histrionics. Yes, Sophie is a heroine, but not one given to Joan of Arc-style theatrics. An optimistic, life-loving student with a boyfriend and a rich future ahead of her, she is the kind of decent, principled person we would all like to be.
*** 1/2 | “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days”
NOT RATED|1 hour, 57 minutes|WARTIME DRAMA|Directed by Marc Rothemund; written by Fred Breinersdorfer; in German with subtitles; photography by Martin Langer; edited by Hans Funck; starring Julia Jentsch, Alexander Held, Fabian Hinrichs, Johanna Gastdorf, André Hennicke, Florian Stetter|Opens today at the Chez Artiste.