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Before the Fall (2004) 

NaPolA (original title) 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384369/

German language with hard English subtitles

In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) - high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls, seeing this as his ticket out of factory life to university and a good salary. During his year in seventh column (fifth form), this innocence is altered as Friedrich encounters hazing, cruelty, death, and the Nazi code. His friendship with Albrecht, the ascetic son of the area's governor, is central to this education; a night in the forest hunting for escaped Russian POWs brings things to a head.
  
Max Riemelt  ...  Friedrich Weimer  
  Tom Schilling  ...  Albrecht Stein  
  Jonas Jägermeyr  ...  Christoph Schneider  
  Leon A. Kersten  ...  Tjaden (as Leon Alexander Kersten)  
  Thomas Drechsel  ...  Hefe  
  Martin Goeres  ...  Siegfried Gladen  
  Florian Stetter  ...  Justus von Jaucher  
  Devid Striesow  ...  Vogler  
  Joachim Bißmeier  ...  Anstaltsleiter  

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.

“In my fortresses, we shall raise a young generation that will make the world tremble with fear…” – Adolf Hitler

With this vision, Adolf Hitler created an ideology so potent and influential that the National-Political Institutes of Learning (Napolas) are remembered till this day. Napolas are military institutions that train cadets into Gauleiters, Head of the Nazi (NSDAP) district. The cadets are considered the superior breed and the elites of the Germans, destined to be future generals. And it is on this premise that the film Napola is based on. 

Friedrich Weimer (Max Riemelt) is a young, diligent lad working in Berlin in 1942. Coming from a working class family, he longs for a better life for himself and his family. His luck turned for the better when one day, his passion for boxing brought him nearer to his goal. In a boxing bout, his astounding agility and fighting prowess caught the eye of a recruiting officer Heinrich Vogler (Devid Striesow) from Napola. Impressed by his abilities, Heinrich invited Friedrich to join the prestigious Napola in Allenstein (a city in North-East Poland) and the latter willingly obliged. 

Friedrich met Albrecht Stein (Tom Schilling) in a chance encounter during his training and discovered that he is the son of a high-ranking German officer. Contrary to Friedrich’s ruggedness and grit, Albrecht comes across as weak and soft. It’s this characteristics of Albrecht that prompts Friedrich to be protective towards him. And it’s the deep friendship forged between them that ultimately makes Friedrich question his belief and change his life forever.

Director Dennis Gansel has crafted a masterpiece out of this film. He illustrates vividly how young innocent adolescents are indoctrinated by Nazism, a form of fascist ideology (the dominant and oppressive, violent control by a dictator through terror and censorship, which involves racism at times). He enables the audience to experience the dilemma faced by the young cadets, which is to choose between being subservient to the Third Reich or risked losing all through expulsion. And most importantly, it allows the audience to catch a glimpse of the practices of the Nazis, their wanton killings of Russian POWs and the crazed desire to excel, even among their own breed. It’s definitely Darwinism Theory stretched beyond the limit. 

The contrast in character between the two male leads and their different views on Nazism are also interesting highlights of the film. Being able-bodied, Friedrich senses the fragility in Albrecht and tries to make him stronger through encouragement. Albrecht, on the other hand, tried to talk Friedrich out of serving the school and abiding by their ideology. It’s this conflict of interest between them and the ultimate decisions that they made that truly makes this film one of the finest in German cinema, and possibly in the international film arena as well. As at time of typing, this film has already garnered several wins and being screened in various film festivals.

There have been several war films being made over the past years, such as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002), seeing the brutality of war through the eyes of a Jew. Then there’s the TV series Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003), a biography that traces the life of Adolf Hitler. And there’s Downfall (2004), a recent film that narrates the last hours of the German dictator. However, nothing comes as close to this film as Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), both of which portrays a Good Samaritan in a German. While Oskar Schindler may be seen as a German rescuing the helpless Jews, a more poignant portrayal is seen in this film in the form of the two male protagonists vacillating between accepting and rejecting the ideology of Nazism. It exemplifies the fact that there exists individuals who renounce Nazism and defy its ideology that is imposed on them. 

This is a film that doesn’t follow conventional practice of basing the story directly on the Holocaust and the Third Reich but rather, provides an alternative voice. In the past, war films have placed their focus on the cruelty and brutality in the battlefield with little or no character focus. This film goes beyond traditional filmmaking in this genre by placing a humane face to the film, with characterisation of the protagonists superceding events. 

While some viewers may feel that the film is biased (considering that it is fictitious and produced by a German director), it is enlightening to know that the story adheres closely to actual events. That the Germans actually acknowledge the few unsung heroes who dared to resist the ideologies of Hitler and willing to pay the price for defiance are commendable.

The freshness found in the subject matter in NaPolA morphs into a cautionary tale of how easily the youth can be molded and shaped. I found the experience of watching Friedrich slowly become something he really wasn’t quite absorbing. Friedrich isn’t a Nazi, most of the students at his academy are as far as you can get from being a Nazi. But they salute just like a Nazi, they wear the swastika, they go through the motions, they become like Nazis without intending to. It’s telling that Friedrich’s great uprising doesn’t result from a rebellion against Nazism but rather as a result of the actions of the abusive father of a friend. With every step Friedrich, and the rest of the boys, takes it’s like he delves further and further into a massive costume. He wants to be a great boxer, a good student and a man, but he doesn’t know how to be any of those things so he does what his school says and thinks nothing of it. Can you truly label someone a Nazi if he is being molded by the school he attends? I say the answer is no and that is why it’s entertaining to watch Friedrich as he becomes one with the machine.

I have no doubt that the above way of thinking was present in the director and co-writer Dennis Gansel’s mind. He peppers NaPolA with images of Nazism, most notably the swastika and the German flag, in places that don’t quite seem right. For some reason when you put the Nazi flag behind a boxing ring it just doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t fit. This mirrors the boys we see in the school, because for the most part the label of Nazi that their teachers will bestow upon them just doesn’t seem right, it most certainly doesn’t fit. NaPolA feels right as a movie, but I never felt that the school children felt like they belonged next to that Nazi symbol and all the trappings of Nazism that we see throughout the film. Please don’t misconstrue what I am saying, I do realize that I have not been exactly clear in my point, but what I just wrote is a good thing. Those kids aren’t Nazis, they are just kids and I feel Mr. Gansel is giving us a slice of history while saying that these kids were no different than any other kid throughout history. They were easily swayed and molded to what the Nazi party wanted them to be, and isn’t that what most schools here in the land of the free and the brave do today, mold kids into what our society deems they should be?

NaPolA stumbles a bit in its portrayal of Heinrich Stein, he is a bit too on the nose as Albrecht’s father. He serves his purpose, but I’m not sure if his purpose was necessary. The story doesn’t really need him to say what it needs to say, or at the very least the character didn’t need to be so relentlessly one dimensional. Mr. Gansel also could have opened up a bit more with his camera. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the beauty he did find with his camera could have happened more often. He did manage to avoid all the usual sports tropes though, and for that I salute him.

I was looking for a nice change of pace in my World War II Marathon, and NaPolA provided that while also managing to be a very good film. Don’t get me wrong, I love World War II, and I love a good World War II movie that delves into the war or the Holocaust. But, NaPolA was different in a good way and when done right there’s nothing wrong with different. NaPolA isn’t really a sports movie either, just in case that’s what the blurbs on the DVD slip left you thinking. NaPolA is an engaging treatise on the molding of children in perhaps the most interesting time in all of history. Most of all NaPolA is a very good film that deserves to be seen by more people, so give it a chance why don’t ya!