Napola – Elite für den Führer (2004)

	Directed by: Dennis Gansel	COUNTRY Germany GENRE Drama/Historical NORWEGIAN TITLE Der Führers elite RUNNING TIME 110 minutes
	Produced by: Molly von Fürtsenberg Viola Jäger Harald Kügler
	Written by: Dennis Gansel Maggie Peren

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Friedrich Weimer	Max Riemelt	½
Albrecht Stein	Tom Schilling
Christoph Schneider	Jonas Jägermeyr	½
Tjaden	Leon Alexander Kersten
Hefe	Thomas Drechsel	½
Siegfried Gladen	Martin Goeres
Justus von Jaucher	Florian Stetter
Heinrich Vogler	Devid Striesow	½
Dr. Karl Klein	Joachim Bissmeier
Josef Peiner/Sportlehrer	Michael Schenk	½
Gauleiter Heinrich Stein	Justus von Dohnany	½
Herr Weimer	Alexander Held

Review

Here is the Swedish film Ondskan's more historically potent and less showy twin, and another example of the decency and balance that has characterised German filmmaking in recent years – particularly in depictions of WWII, which German cinema has not been ready to do until recently. In Napola, the young director Dennis Gansel presents a riveting look at how kids (notably the most talented ones) were trained into embracing the Nazi ideology. The film is more about values than war – a poignant study of the fine line that separates right from wrong, thus remarkable for its ethical aspects. And still, the film is equally accomplished on the visual side, with its crisp, compelling photography capturing the time in question better than most films set during the era. The casting is a key here, both in giving the film the right historical feel, and also because of the erotic tension between the boys. There are particularly great performances by Tom Schilling, Devid Striesow and Thomas Drechsel, as well as Max Riemelt in the lead. Like Sophie Scholl, the film manages to go into the depths of WWII-era Germany without bias (or at least with little bias) in order to explore the subtler elements of the machinery. In Gansel's view, Nazi Germany was a brilliantly effective and prominent society with values that are not only lost today, but also largely missed and forgotten. Its only drawback was that it was founded on a completely flawed ideology.