Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Theatrical release poster for Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Directed by	Uli Edel
Produced by	Bernd Eichinger
Written by	Bernd Eichinger based on the book by Stefan Aust
Starring	Moritz Bleibtreu Martina Gedeck Johanna Wokalek Nadja Uhl Simon Licht Alexandra Maria Lara Bruno Ganz
Distributed by	Constantin Film
Release date(s)	Germany: September 25, 2008 UK: November 15, 2008
Running time	150 min.
Country	Germany
Language	German
Official website • IMDb

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex is a 2008 German film by Uli Edel; written and produced by Bernd Eichinger. It stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck and Johanna Wokalek. The film is based on the German best selling non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust and retells the early years of the West German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF), which was the most active and prominent terrorist group in post-war West Germany. The film was selected as the official German submission for the 81st Academy Awards in the category Best Foreign Language Film and made the January shortlist.^[1] It was nominated on December 11, 2008 for the Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

[edit] Plot

The film retells the early years of the West German terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF) and concentrates on the RAF from its beginnings in 1967/1968 at the time of the German student movement to the German Autumn (Deutscher Herbst) in 1977.

[edit] Production

The film began production in August 2007 with filming at several locations including Berlin, Munich, Stammheim Prison, Rome and Morocco. The film was subsidized by several film financing boards to the sum of EUR 6.5 million.

[edit] Cast

• Martina Gedeck as Ulrike Meinhof
• Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader
• Johanna Wokalek as Gudrun Ensslin
• Bruno Ganz as Horst Herold
• Stipe Erceg as Holger Meins
• Jan Josef Liefers as Peter Homann
• Alexandra Maria Lara as Petra Schelm
• Andreas Tobias as Manfred Grashof
• Nadja Uhl as Brigitte Mohnhaupt
• Simon Licht as Horst Mahler
• Hannah Herzsprung as Susanne Albrecht
• Vinzenz Kiefer as Peter-Jürgen Boock
• Daniel Lommatzsch as Christian Klar
• Niels-Bruno Schmidt as Jan-Carl Raspe
• Katharina Wackernagel as Astrid Proll
• Annika Kuhl as Irmgard Möller

[edit] Distribution and response

The film premiered on September 15, 2008 in Munich and was commercially released in Germany on September 25, 2008.^[2] The film was chosen as Germany's official submission to the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.^[3]

Sandra Borgmann in a scene from The Baader Meinhof Complex

Michael Buback, the son of former chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback who was assassinated by the RAF in 1977, expressed doubts concerning whether the film seriously attempts to present the historical truth, although he had not seen the movie when he expressed this concern.^[4] He subsequently amended this statement but pointed out that the film concentrates almost exclusively on portraying the perpetrators which carries with it the danger for the viewer of too much identification with the protagonists.^[5]

Protesting against the historically "distorted" and "almost completely false" depiction of the RAF's assassination of Jürgen Ponto, Ponto's widow and witness Ignes Ponto returned her Federal Cross of Merit, since she saw the German government, which co-produced the film through various film financing funds, as jointly responsible for the "public humiliations" suffered by her and her family. Representing the family, her daughter Corinna Ponto called the film's violation of their privacy "wrong" and "particularly perfidious".^[6]

Jörg Schleyer, the son of the assassinated manager and then president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, Hanns Martin Schleyer, states, however, that the movie was a great film which finally portrayed the RAF as what it actually was, "a merciless, ruthless gang of murderers". Commenting on the blatant depiction of violence he said, "Only a movie like this can show young people how brutal and bloodthirsty the RAF's actions were at that time."^[7]

Hollywood Reporter gave the film a favourable review,^[8] praising the acting and storytelling, but also noting a lack of character development in certain parts. A mixed review with similar criticism was published in Variety.^[9] Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International praised the film's excellent production value as well as the efficient and crisp translation of a fascinating topic to film, but criticized the fact that the plot flatlines emotionally and doesn't hold much dramatic suspense for younger and non-European audiences unfamiliar with the film's historical events.^[10]

The Filmbewertungsstelle Wiesbaden, Germany's national agency which evaluates movies on their artistical, documentarical and historical significance, gave the movie the rating "especially valuable". In their explanatory statement the committee says: "the film tries to do justice to the terrorists as well as to the representatives of the german state by describing both sides with an equally objective distance." The committee asserts: "German history as a big movie production: impressive, authentical, political, tantalizing".

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Aust, Stefan (September 2008) (in German). Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex. Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe. ISBN 3455500295.  (English translation The Baader-Meinhof Complex published by The Bodley Head, ISBN 1847920454)
• Eichinger, Katja (September 2008) (in German). "Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex" Das Buch zum Film. Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe. ISBN 3455500967. 

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Official UK site
• Baader Meinhof Komplex, Der at the Internet Movie Database
• The Baader-Meinhof Complex at Rotten Tomatoes