Der Hauptmann (2017)

In the last moments of World War II, a young German soldier fighting for survival finds a Nazi captain's uniform. Impersonating an officer, the man quickly takes on the monstrous identity of the perpetrators he is trying to escape from.

Director:

Robert Schwentke

Writer:

Robert Schwentke

Stars:

Max Hubacher, Milan Peschel, Frederick Lau

22 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Max Hubacher	...	Willi Herold
Milan Peschel	...	Freytag
Frederick Lau	...	Kipinski
Bernd Hölscher	...	Schütte
Waldemar Kobus	...	Hansen
Alexander Fehling	...	Junker
Samuel Finzi	...	Roger
Wolfram Koch	...	Schneider
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eugénie Anselin	...	Irmgard (as Eugenie Anselin)
Hendrik Arnst	...	Weyher
Haymon Maria Buttinger	...	Dr. Kremer
Blerim Destani	...	Dahler-Kaufmann
Miroslaw Dusza	...	Inner Camp Prison Guard
Marko Dyrlich	...	Brockhoff
Rike Eckermann	...	Farmer's Wife

Storyline

The Captain follows Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), a German army deserter who stumbles across an abandoned Nazi captain's uniform during the last, desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he stole only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whosoever that happens to be. A parade of fresh atrocities follow in the self-declared captain's wake, and serve as a profound reminder of the consequences of social conformity and untrammeled political power. Simultaneously a historical docudrama, a tar-black comedy, and a sociological treatise, The Captain presents fascism as a pathetic pyramid scheme, a system to be gamed by the most unscrupulous and hollow-souled.

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Plot Keywords:

impostor | year 1945 | army deserter | world war two | war criminal | 

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Taglines:

Follow the Leader

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Details

Official Sites:

Official German Site Official site

Country:

Germany France Poland China

Language:

German

Release Date:

27 July 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bödeln från Emsland

Filming Locations:

Görlitz, Saxony, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,568, 29 July 2018, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$109,226, 29 November 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmgalerie 451, Alfama Films, Opus Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Color:

Black and White Color (one scene) Color (one shot) Color (one sequence) Color (Japan)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

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Goofs

Some German soldiers have a skull painted on their helmet. This specific type of skull decal was used by a Finnish army unit (1st battalion, infantry regiment 46) in the continuation war 1941-1944. A famous colorized photo of three Finnish soldiers in a trench wearing this sort helmet decal of is often incorrectly associated with Germans or the SS.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits show "Task Force Herold" marching through present day Germany and interrogating unsuspecting civilians.

User Reviews

Timely for Germany, alas

My compliments to sfviewer123 for picking up on the Captain from Köpenick lineage. Phony nostalgia for the 3rd Reich is one of the strands of present-day populist agitation in Germany. What a fine antidote for that this film is!