13 Minutes, Filmhouse, Edinburgh Film Festival

From the director of Downfall, the film that launched a thousand Hitler parodies, a look at a lesser known incident in Nazi history.  Georg Elser built and planted a bomb in a Munich beer house, timing it to go off when the Fuehrer was making a speech there.  The bomb went off as planned, but missed Adolf who had left thirteen minutes earlier.  This took place shortly after the beginning of the Second World War, and it's impossible not to indulge in some 'what if?' speculation.

Director Hirschbiegel was introduced to the audience before the screening, and would do a Q&A session afterwards.  In his introduction he told us that much of the dialogue was derived from Gestapo files and interviews with primary sources.  He also warned us that we wouldn't be getting many laughs.

The opening scene shows Elser planting the bomb and attempting to make his getaway, only to be arrested at the Swiss border.  From then we have two stories running in parallel.  The interrogation and torture of the prisoner once captured and his life leading up to his decision to make his assassination attempt.

The latter thread paints a very sensory picture of life in rural Germany in the 1930s, and how dangerous life under the Nazi regime became.  Georg starts out as an advocate of non-violence, and we see the events which shape his conviction that he must bring about Hitler's death to save Germany from destruction.

Prisoner Georg is subjected to beatings and torture, but it is the threats of violence towards his former lover which convinces him to cooperate.  He admits responsibility and explains how he sourced the materials for the bomb, and designed it. His interrogation is led by two senior SS officers, Arthur Nebe and the infamous Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller.  Eventually they believe his story, only to be told by their superiors that there must have been a conspiracy, so the torture of Elser continues even after he has revealed the whole truth.

For most of the film the pre-bomb narrative acts as a respite from the intensity of the Gestapo scenes, but as his preparations start to fall into place this part of the story winds up the tension.  The inhumanity and fear combine to bring a sense of heightened anxiety.

So the irony of the ending is unexpected.  Nebe is hanged, by Mueller, for his part in the near-miss 1944 plot to kill Hitler.  And we find Elser in Dachau, days before the end of the war, being summarily executed.  

Georg Elser is little known to history, even in Germany.  As Hirschbiegel explained, he was only a poor, country carpenter, operating alone, belonging to no grouping which might campaign for his recognition, as would have happened had he been a communist or aristocrat.  A remarkable tribute to a remarkable man.  Highly recommended viewing.