Watched in the cinema (47th visit in 2024)

The arrest of suspected terrorist Daniela Klette has led to increased talk and writing about the left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF for short) in recent weeks. Immediately after the so-called "German Autumn" of 1977, cinema was already dealing with the political and social climate prevailing at the time - with the episodic film "Germany in Autumn", conceived by eleven directors, and with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's solo work "Die Dritte Generation".

In later productions such as "Die Stille nach dem Schuss" by Volker Schlöndorff and "Die innere Sicherheit" by Christian Petzold, a more distanced approach was chosen to look back on the time, while in "Baader" by Christopher Roth, truth and (genre) fiction were deliberately mixed in order to deal with the myth that had been created.

In 2008, around 30 years after the events, Uli Edel delivered a piece of political cinema for a large audience with "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex", star-studded right down to the supporting roles, which was given a re-release yesterday as part of the Best of Cinema series. Based on a script by Bernd Eichinger, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust, the film shows (among other things) how the journalist Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) meets the terrorist couple Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) - and how she slips from left-wing commitment into illegality and radicalism.

The various bomb attacks, for example on the Axel Springer AG publishing house, are described, as are the investigations by BKA President Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), the imprisonment of some RAF members in the high-security wing of Stuttgart-Stammheim, including a hunger strike, the "Stockholm hostage-taking" and the other assassinations of the following generation(s), up to the kidnapping and murder of the employer president Hanns-Martin Schleyer (Bernd Stegemann).

Eichinger himself called his approach to the screenplay a "shredding dramaturgy". The work attempts to depict the emergence and development of the RAF in the period from 1967 to 1977 without placing any character at the center. There are no classic protagonists and antagonists, only participants in a sequence of events. To some extent, this dramaturgical plan works: The production makes it clear that it is not interested in glorifying the deeds and people or glorifying the past. The brutality perpetrated by the terrorists is made just as clear as the police violence. Cinematographer Rainer Klausmann's images rely on naturalistic lighting; the costumes do not look as if they are part of a retro fashion show.

At times, however, the whole thing feels like a ticking off of important images and facts. The precision used to create the most authentic portrayal possible is impressive, but can also be seen as problematic: Is a meticulous re-enactment of deeds, despite all the avoidance of hero worship, not always at the same time a certain appreciation? When terrorists or criminals of all kinds are portrayed in feature films or true crime formats, are they not automatically given a stage and thus a relevance that other people (without criminal backgrounds) do not receive?

Overall, however, the film succeeds in making you reflect critically on the violence shown on all sides. This is due in no small part to the convincing acting performances. Sebastian Blomberg as Rudi Dutschke and Hannah Herzsprung as Susanne Albrecht, alongside Gedeck, Wokalek and Ganz, are among the ensemble members who provide particularly intense moments.