The titular character in Sophie Scholl – die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl – The Final Days) was a real person, a girl who was part of a student resistance movement called Die weiße Rose (The White Rose) which staged anti-Nazi protests in and around Munich in the early 1940s. She is known in Germany as a rare example of a Nazi-era German hero. Caught red-handed in February 1943 distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets with her brother Hans, she was incarcerated, interrogated and brought to justice according to the Nazi laws of the time. Two films, both released in 1982, told her harrowing story: Die weiße Rose (The White Rose) and Fünf letzte Tage (Five Last Days). Both films also starred the same actress in the role of Sophie: Lena Stolze.

 

Why make another film if there are already two, I hear you wonder? Apart from the fact that these films were made over twenty ago, there has been the recent unearthing of the transcripts of Sophie Scholl’s interrogation by Nazi officer Robert Mohr. This direct peek into history through the literal conversations between the two protagonists has shed new light on Scholl’s role in the movement and on her personality. Apart from brief opening- and closing scenes, the film is in fact chiefly concerned with the conversations between Scholl and Mohr, which  according to the filmmakers, are mostly verbatim from the transcripts. The transcripts as used in the film give us a verbal cat-and-mouse game between two complete opposites: Mohr, an older male Nazi officer who believes in the system that has put him where he is and Scholl, a young, idealistic female who is part of a Nazi-resistance movement which believes that Germany is loosing the war against Russia. According to The White Rose, the German regime was being undemocratic in, amongst other things, its suppression of dissident political voices. The words of both Mohr and Scholl are powerful, almost theatrical, although our sympathy lies clearly with the intelligent Sophie.

 

Sophie is played by Julia Jentsch, the Berliner actress previously seen in Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The Edukators) and her performance here is nothing short of riveting. In films that are essentially a character study of a single person, the work almost always either succeeds or fails based on two simple criteria: the writing and the central performance. These are the kind of films that actors and actresses relish, because it allows them to get under the skin of their character completely. Recent examples include Oscar nominees Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake and Annette Bening in Being Julia. Sophie Scholl –die letzten Tage can easily be added to this small group of films that is elevated by the sheer force of its central performance (all films also name the central heroine in the title). Jentsch’s performance in fact won her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. She does not become Sophie – she is Sophie.

 

With regards to the writing, it is rather eerie to think that the intelligent conversations between Scholl and Mohr were not thought up by screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer but rather by Sophie herself – and that under the pressure of interrogation. Her words echo through the decades to the mouth of Jentsch who renders them with utmost respect and humility as if they were her own. For those who know the story of Sophie Scholl, the ending will not come as a shock – but this does not mean it looses any of its force. Director Marc Rothemund wisely focuses his film on his central character and performance. The story is dealt with in a straightforward fashion and apart from the metaphorical use of windows and outside light to contrast with Sophie’s capture (a devise also much used in the Nazi boarding school tale Napola), even the cinematography is simple and unintrusive. The film itself may be very classical in its approach to its iconic subject, the sheer power of Jentsch’s performance and Sophie’s own words make this film an absolute must-see.

 

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