One of the best films about Nazi Germany was made by Marc Rothemund based on Fred Breinersdorfer’s script. A fascinating historical drama about those tragic times, about a completely crazy society and a totalitarian state where no one dared to say the obvious out loud. About the incredible courage, heroism and ultimate freedom that the main character of the film will pay dearly for, which was nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign film. That title character, or Sophie Scholl, was a 21-year-old student and anti-Nazi activist from Munich, a member of the non-violent resistance movement White Rose. And it took incredible courage in that totalitarian dictatorship to be an opponent of the system, and together with her brother Hans, she was arrested after they left anti-war leaflets at the university.
They immediately fall into the hands of the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, and very soon the deranged agent will destroy her alibi and, aware that there is no way out for her, Sophie will confess her guilt for what she is accused of. She will try to protect the rest of society from the movement, and in this fantastic drama we follow her last days from the moment of her arrest to the horrible and creepy ending. It is a film with such a strong message, powerful, striking, shocking, powerful, at the same time so philosophically, ideologically and politically informed. On the example of this girl and her fate, all the madness of the Nazi regime and the complete loss of ties with reality of the people who supported and maintained the regime are perfectly shown.
And although the contents of the leaflets that Sophie and Hans scattered around the university were relatively harmless and in the text they warned that Germany has no chance in the long term in a war practically against the rest of the world, which must have been clear to everyone somewhere in their subconscious, it was enough to make them is sentenced to the most severe punishment. Because freedom of thought, freedom of speech and critical thinking is what most bothers any totalitarian regime, and how can it not be the most monstrous of all time. There are great scenes in which the Gestapo officer interrogates Sophie, and she answers bravely and decisively because she is already fully aware of what awaits her and if she has already lost her life, she does not want to lose her morals, honesty and sense of justice.
It’s completely surreal and the trial itself, which is not really it, since the judges, the jury, the prosecutor’s office and even the lawyers are crazy Nazis who have already written the verdicts in advance and nothing can be changed. It was filmed in a realistic, almost documentary style, and while writing the script, Breinersdorfer used official documents and records from the trial as much as possible. Julia Jentsch is also outstanding in the role of Sophia, who received the award for best actress in Berlin and for European actress of the year, and it is a film with a strong humanist and anti-war message that shows that even in the greatest and worst darkness there must be at least a minimal glimmer of light.