This man could have changed history.
Georg Elser was a man who could have changed world history and saved millions of human lives, if only he had had 13 more minutes. With 13 more minutes, the bomb he had personally assembled would have torn apart Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. But this was not to be, and on 8 November 1939, Hitler left the scene of the attempted assassination earlier than expected – leaving Elser to fail catastrophically.
Who was this man who recognized the danger emanating from Hitler sooner than many others, who took action when everybody else, including the German generals, meekly followed orders or kept silent? What did he see, which our parents or grandparents did not see or want to see? The man who told his torturers to their faces that he wanted to prevent the bloodshed of the imminent world war?
13 Minutes relates the background of the failed attack in the Bürgerbräukeller and paints a suspenseful, emotional portrait of the resistance fighter who was called “Georgie” in his hometown. A story that takes us from his early years in the Swabian Alps – when National Socialism arrived in his hometown – to his last days at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was killed shortly before the end of the war, at the command of the one man whom he himself had wanted to kill, Adolf Hitler.
13 Minutes (German: Elser – Er hätte die Welt verändert) is a German drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel that portrays the failed Hitler assassin Georg Elser. It was screened out of competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. It was one of eight films shortlisted by Germany to be their submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, but it lost out to Labyrinth of Lies.
Review for 13 Minutes
The rousing film from Oliver Hirschbiegel, the director of Downfall, tells the story of one of recent German history’s almost forgotten figures. Georg Elser (Christian Friedel) was a carpenter who, in 1939, came within minutes of killing Adolf Hitler with a home-made bomb. The bomb went off after Hitler left a hall, killing several bystanders.
Hirschbiegel and his screenwriters have come up with an ingenious narrative structure. The bomb blast comes at the beginning of the film; then, Elser is interrogated and tortured, and we are whisked back to when and why he built his bomb as he recounts the tale under extreme duress.
The film plays like a rustic folk tale. Elser is portrayed by Friedel as a strong-willed, good-natured country carpenter, appalled by the Nazi intimidation that reaches into his corner of Swabian Germany. He is having an affair with a married woman (Katharina Schüttler), whose boorish husband’s behaviour encapsulates the vindictiveness of the National Socialists. Some of the torture scenes are very uncomfortable to watch, but Elser remains defiant in the face of extreme suffering.
Despite the cleverness of its plotting, this is an old-fashioned movie which has the feel of a Heimat-like mini-series. Elser’s story isn’t especially well known outside Germany but many set-pieces – the bombing, the village feasts, the grim sequences of Nazis humiliating townsfolk – seem familiar from newsreels and war movies. The film boasts handsome production values and is as intricately put together as the device Elser so painstakingly assembles.
13 Minutes (2015)
Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner, Rüdiger Klink, Johann von Bülow, Simon Licht, Valentina Repetto, Anna Unterberger
Screenplay by: Fred Breinersdorfer, Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer
Cinematography by: Judith Kaufmann
Film Editing by: Alexander Dittner
Costume Design by: Bettina Marx
Set Decoration by: Daniele Drobny
Music by: David Holmes
Studio: Lucky Bird Pictures
Release Date: July 17, 2015
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