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Before the Fall

Original title: Napola - Elite für den Führer
  • 2004
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
19K
YOUR RATING
Before the Fall (2004)
Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.
Play trailer2:03
1 Video
48 Photos
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Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.

  • Director
    • Dennis Gansel
  • Writers
    • Dennis Gansel
    • Maggie Peren
  • Stars
    • Max Riemelt
    • Tom Schilling
    • Devid Striesow
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    19K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Dennis Gansel
    • Writers
      • Dennis Gansel
      • Maggie Peren
    • Stars
      • Max Riemelt
      • Tom Schilling
      • Devid Striesow
    • 72User reviews
    • 45Critic reviews
    • 65Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 8 wins & 6 nominations total

    Videos1

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    Trailer 2:03
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    Photos48

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    Top cast52

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    Max Riemelt
    Max Riemelt
    • Friedrich Weimer
    Tom Schilling
    Tom Schilling
    • Albrecht Stein
    Devid Striesow
    Devid Striesow
    • Vogler
    Jonas Jägermeyr
    • Christoph Schneider
    Leon A. Kersten
    • Tjaden
    • (as Leon Alexander Kersten)
    Thomas Drechsel
    Thomas Drechsel
    • Hefe
    Martin Goeres
    Martin Goeres
    • Siegfried Gladen
    Florian Stetter
    Florian Stetter
    • Justus von Jaucher
    Joachim Bißmeier
    Joachim Bißmeier
    • Anstaltsleiter
    Michael Schenk
    • Sportlehrer
    Justus von Dohnányi
    Justus von Dohnányi
    • Gauleiter Heinrich Stein
    • (as Justus von Dohnàny and Justus von Dohnányi)
    Claudia Michelsen
    Claudia Michelsen
    • Frau Stein
    Julie Engelbrecht
    Julie Engelbrecht
    • Katharina
    • (as Julie Marie Engelbrecht)
    Johannes Zirner
    Johannes Zirner
    • Torben Send
    Alexander Held
    • Friedrichs Vater
    Sissy Höfferer
    Sissy Höfferer
    • Friedrichs Mutter
    Max Dombrovka
    • Hans Weimer
    • (as Max Dombrowka)
    Marian Schole
    • Peter Fischer
    • Director
      • Dennis Gansel
    • Writers
      • Dennis Gansel
      • Maggie Peren
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews72

    7.418.6K
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    Featured reviews

    8jsmith1480

    Top notch production

    The subject matter is not unfamiliar - a decent German (in this case a talented young boxer) fights to retain his humanity in the face of Nazi pressure to lose it as a bad habit. At heavy cost to himself he refuses. And thinking back to the beginning of the movie we should not be surprised: to accept the invitation to attend an elite academy he must defy his father. To maintain his self-respect later on he must defy the surrogate fathers he has acquired at the academy.

    This a superbly produced, directed film. The young actors' performances are believable and affecting. And for people who care about such things, Max Riemelt as Friedrich, the young, virile, gorgeous protagonist is a very easy guy to look at. Jim Smith
    8gogoschka-1

    Haunting Portrait Of Education Under The Nazis

    Apart form the films of Michael Haneke, this was one of the few German language films in recent years that left a lasting impression on me. It offers a realistic - and haunting - portrayal of what it must have been like for the youths during the dark years of the third reich to be 'bred' and drilled to meet the required Nazi standards for the "master-race". Impressive, well acted cinema from Germany. 8 stars out of 10.

    In case you're interested in more underrated gems, here's some of my favorites:

    imdb.com/list/ls070242495
    9ridwane

    Deserves Academy Award for Best Foreign Film

    I just watched Napola at the Montreal World Film Festival and I was pleasantly surprised. This choice of a random movie turned out to be a real cinematographic gem.

    Set during World War II, this movie is about the dilemma and choices of some German teenagers who attend a napola - a special institution for gifted boys to turn them into the Nazi elite. Their days consist of military training and indoctrination; they are forced to lose all pity and become ruthless servants of the Fuhrer.

    The story follows the entrance of Friedrich into a napola, the changes that he undergoes and the choices that he makes. Admitted because of his boxing skills, he seizes it as an opportunity to escape his poor working class situation. His best friend at the napola is the Governor's son - sensitive, caring, humane and opposed to Nazi dogma, he is obviously in the wrong place but has no choice but to fulfill his dad's wishes. As their friendship develops, Friedrich struggles between the ideology that the napola is forcing upon him and his friend's pacific beliefs.

    This powerful film with excellent acting culminates on the boxing ring as Friedrich fights against the champion from another napola. The scene of the morning practice on the frozen lake left me breathless, while the ending of the grenade throwing session shook me with its passion, despair, and horror.

    Another reason why I liked this movie so much is that it is made by Germans; indeed one would expect Hollywood to come up with such a story and that the outcome would be a highly emotional melodrama. I could feel the director disagreeing strongly with the Nazis, but rather than feeling shameful for what his countrymen did 60 years ago, he denounced it. Indeed, Friedrich's ultimate choice should be the choice of the new Germany.

    My rating: 9/10
    9howard.schumann

    Powerful and disturbing

    Involving rigorous physical activity and political indoctrination in total subservience to Hitler and his ideas of a German master race, Napolas (National-Political Institutes of Learning) were established with the purpose of training future political, business, and social leaders for the "Thousand-Year Reich". In these schools, there was no room for debating opposing views or philosophical niceties like ends and means. The schools taught that only the strong survive. Anyone who showed any trace of independent thinking or sensitivity to human values were sadistically harassed and weeded out.

    Based on the recollections of his grandfather, Dennis Gansel's Before the Fall (Napola —Elite für den Führer) is a riveting coming of age story about the training of one such Nazi elite in the Germany of 1942. The work transcends its limitations as a genre film to tackle a more universal theme - the struggle between external ideals and matters of inner conscience. Like Igor, the idealistic teenager in Dardenne's La Promesse, Friedrich Weimer (Max Riemelt), a Nordic-looking, working class boxer must deal with issues of conscience in an environment that is anathema to the assertion of human values. Friedrich is only seventeen when he is approached after an amateur boxing match by a Nazi instructor at a Napola school. Seeking to salvage the athletic reputation of the school, he sees in Freidrich not only a boxing champion, but a blank slate that can be molded to fit the Nazi ideal.

    Friedrich, destined to follow his father as a factory laborer, sees the chance to both serve the fatherland and advance his own career and signs his own registration papers when his father refuses to agree. The boy is still very innocent but genuinely idealistic and possesses genuine warmth as shown in the scene in which he reassures his younger brother. Friederich's mind is open to the Nazi indoctrination not because he is without conscience but because he simply hasn't seen any reason to question the prevailing zeitgeist.

    Freiderich's limited world experience suddenly expands, however, when he meets two other classmates: Siegfried Gladen (Martin Goeres), a boy who has a bed-wetting problem ruthlessly exploited as weakness by his fellow cadets and their sadistic teachers, and Albrecht Stein (Tom Schilling), the son of Heinrich Stein (Justus Vob Dohnanyi), a hateful Nazi governor. Albrecht who has the dangerous idea that people should consult their own conscience before blindly following orders is a boy of sensitivity and poetry, the embodiment perhaps of the true German spirit of Goethe and Heine. His father is revolted, however, by the boy's perceived weakness and humiliates him by insisting that he and Freidrich engage in a very uneven boxing match when he invites his friend to his home.

    Albrecht begins to question the merciless Nazi training after he sees Freidrich deliver a blow to the head of a fighter when he is already down. He also recoils in horror and speaks out publicly after the cadets are marched out into the forest to track down and murder allegedly escaped Russian POWs, in reality unarmed children. This incident results in a break in the relationship of the two boys and a sudden but predictable tragedy.

    Before the Fall is more than an accounting of the Nazi's disregard for human values, a fact already well-established. It is a more profound statement of how people need to be educated to think for themselves and take a stand for what they believe to be right. Impeccably directed and beautifully performed, Before the Fall is one of the most powerful and disturbing films of recent memory.
    10singinuall

    extremely touching film

    I saw this film once, and needed to return once more to see it again. This film touched my heart in a way that very few others have. Max Riemelt and Tom Schilling give one of the most convincing and stellar performances I have ever seen. Their chemistry on screen is such that the audience becomes fully engaged in their emotion and in their situation. Their heart-wrenching performance is illuminated by director Dennis Gansel's artistic genius. There are breathtaking shots of German landscape and scenery. There are angles and shots throughout the movie that remain very close to you long after the movie is finished. The story is a very vivid reminder of the horrors that man is capable of producing. This German film is a reminder of that horror, but also reminds us that there is innocence within that horror. If anything, this film depicted young men who were stripped of their innocence. Some gave in to the horror, while our heroes fought against it. For those who are lovers of the German language, you will hear no finer dialogue and range of speech than in this incredible work. I urge anyone and everyone to see this film.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Parts of the story are based on incident's in the life of Dennis Gansel's grandfather.
    • Goofs
      At least one of the Napola boxers and one of the training officers have pierced ears. Very unlikely, this being set in Nazi Germany.
    • Quotes

      Albrecht Stein: [reading from his essay] "As childish as it sounds, the winter time and the sight of freshly fallen snow always fill us with inexplicable joy. Perhaps because as children, we associated it with Christmas. I always imagine myself the hero who killed dragons, rescued virgins, and freed the world from evil. As we went out yesterday to find the prisoners, I felt like that little boy who wanted to save the world."

      Vogler: Albrecht, stop.

      Albrecht Stein: But as we returned, I understood that I am part of the evil that I wanted to save us from.

      Vogler: Albrecht, stop.

      Albrecht Stein: Shooting prisoners is wrong. They were not armed, as Governor Stein told us, to incite us. We didn't shoot men, only children.

      Vogler: Out!

    • Connections
      Featured in Videotagebuch von Dennis Gansel (2005)
    • Soundtracks
      Uns're Fahne flattert uns voran
      (Vorwärts! Vorwärts! schmettern die hellen Fanfaren)

      Music by Hans-Otto Borgmann (as Hans Otto Borgmann)

      Lyrics by Baldur von Schirach

      Performed by chorus featuring Max Riemelt

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    FAQ17

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 13, 2005 (Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • Germany
    • Languages
      • German
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • 希特勒的男孩
    • Filming locations
      • Prague, Czech Republic
    • Production companies
      • Olga Film
      • Constantin Film
      • SevenPictures Film
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $144,254
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $8,036
      • Oct 9, 2005
    • Gross worldwide
      • $3,764,219
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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