On February 22, 1943, 21-year-old student Sophie Scholl was executed by guillotine for her involvement in the anti-Nazi resistance movement. The last five days of her life are seen here from the perspective of her cellmate, Else Gebel, whose relatives Percy Adlon contacted for help piecing together his witness: a complex, indomitable woman 20 years Sophie’s senior. Through Gebel's articulate, even literary, recollections, the film exposes a picture of 1943 Germany only rarely considered. Here, the Gestapo are no personification of Evil–they are simply minor Bavarian civil servants doing their day-to-day administrative duties. Far from excusing them, Adlon highlights the horror of the Nazi regime by revealing how evil quickly becomes banal, so that “upright, middle-class virtues” can be used to justify the execution of a young girl, whose only crime was her desire for an end to war. Although necessarily somber, the film's tone ultimately allows for notes of triumph: Scholl has the strength to remain true to her commitment in the face of death, and Gebel rises above the deadening mediocrity of the prison officialdom, to give voice to higher ideals.

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Premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, September 1982

Silver German Film Award for the producers

Gold German Film Awards for Lena Stolze and Irm Herrmann

Bavarian Film Award for director Percy Adlon, 1983

OCIC Prize, Venice, 1982

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Shot on 16mm Agfa in Munich (Bühler-Palais, Briennerstrasse), February-March, 1982

German, 112 min

Subtitle options: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish