Films featuring
Bruno Ganz

Downfall

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The German film Downfall details, rather unflinchingly, the horrific and often bizarre last twelve days of the Nazi regime during April and May of 1945. By now, Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) has retreated to the bunker as Stalin’s forces encircle the city of Berlin. Bent and infirm, he is no longer the beer hall firebrand of the early Nazi era.

The last few holdouts like Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) and Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes), gather around the Führer as he orders counter attacks by armies that exist only in his fevered imagination. His generals attempt to convince him that there is no hope and they should appeal to the western powers to broker a peace. Hitler and a few fanatical yes-men like Goebbels squash any such attempts at reason.

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