"Edelweisspiraten" or "The Edelweiss Pirates" is a co-production between four different countries (one of them being Germany) and the result is that this film is mostly in the German language. The version I saw ran for 96 minutes (including credits), but I see there is also another version out there that is roughly 15 minutes longer. The director and also one of the writers is Niko von Glasow and it is probably even more than a fairly prolific decade after this one was made back in 2004 his most known work. Does it have to do with the cast? Not really, I guess. Jochen Nickel, Anna Thalbach and Bela B. Felsenheimer are all no unknown actors, but also nowhere near the elite of German film performers. As for Bela B., he is still much more known for his performances with German punk rock band Die Ärzte, even if his acting career is also more prolific than most may think. And with Anna Thalbach, I am not only amazed how much she resembles Katharina (like identical twins in different decades), but also that she somewhat nicely pulled off the female lead here as well as in looking both desirable and stunning, but also in terms of looking like a political victim of her time.
And this of course refers to the Nazi years because this is when the film is set and the Edelweisspiraten are a resistance group that did in fact exist for several years, even if hardly anybody outside the historian profession knows about them today. And maybe one reason is that the attention they received, for example with this movie, is not on a level that depicts them as memorable to those interested (theatre audiences in this specific case). Sadly the two brother characters never really attracted my attention and I found them relatively weak and interchangeable. Bela B. was slightly better, but given the material and potential to his character he was also underwhelming. Thalback was okay like I wrote earlier. The Nazi actors did not make a difference either. I believe that with a subject like this (resistance and suffering in 1940s Germany), films need to come up with something special, something that stands out because there are hundreds of films on this subject and if you really want audiences to care, then you need to make a difference compared to all these other films. This film here does not and so it sinks in the gray matter of the genre I just mentioned. Even worse, the horror/torture/violence scenes towards the very end make it look like a desperate attempt to achieve this previously mentioned difference, but it never feels creative, just for the sake of it. Like I wrote in the title of my review, this is quite a shame as these Edelweißpiraten sure deserved a film that accurately and convincingly elaborates on their existence. I hope they get one in the future. This one is not it. Watch something else instead.
And this of course refers to the Nazi years because this is when the film is set and the Edelweisspiraten are a resistance group that did in fact exist for several years, even if hardly anybody outside the historian profession knows about them today. And maybe one reason is that the attention they received, for example with this movie, is not on a level that depicts them as memorable to those interested (theatre audiences in this specific case). Sadly the two brother characters never really attracted my attention and I found them relatively weak and interchangeable. Bela B. was slightly better, but given the material and potential to his character he was also underwhelming. Thalback was okay like I wrote earlier. The Nazi actors did not make a difference either. I believe that with a subject like this (resistance and suffering in 1940s Germany), films need to come up with something special, something that stands out because there are hundreds of films on this subject and if you really want audiences to care, then you need to make a difference compared to all these other films. This film here does not and so it sinks in the gray matter of the genre I just mentioned. Even worse, the horror/torture/violence scenes towards the very end make it look like a desperate attempt to achieve this previously mentioned difference, but it never feels creative, just for the sake of it. Like I wrote in the title of my review, this is quite a shame as these Edelweißpiraten sure deserved a film that accurately and convincingly elaborates on their existence. I hope they get one in the future. This one is not it. Watch something else instead.