There’s a treacherous tranquility to the title of Fatih Akin’s latest foray into biographic topics after the much nastier The Golden Glove and the hard-hitting Rhinegold. Evoking the scenic backdrop of the German island, it suggests that this is first and foremost a story about one distinct region and the people inhabiting it. However, the young protagonist set up as an identification figure happens to be an ardent member of the Hitler Youth. 12-year-old Nanning, vivaciously played by newcomer Jasper Billerbeck, proves a keen observer of the social and familial tensions arising in the final days of World War II. The latter is hardly more than a specter in the background of the sentimental coming-of-age tale.
Amrum’s main character is raised in bourgeois comfort with a throng of younger siblings by his fervently fascist, very pregnant mother Hille (Laura Tonke). As his high-ranking father is stationed in Berlin, his far less indoctrinated aunt Ena (Lisa Hagmeister) does half of the parenting. With Hitler’s defeat becoming apparent, Nanning finds himself torn by the conflicting reactions of those around him. Dissenters like headstrong potato farmer Tessa (Diane Kruger) or his classmate Hermann’s kind grandfather Arjan (Lars Jessen) start voicing their political opposition more openly. Meanwhile, the former Nazi elite faces the downfall of everything they believed in. His sense of social status is shaken when his mother resorts to theft as food ration stamps become worthless.
Nanning’s own stance is further complicated by local kids scorning him for not being native to Amrum. This puts him halfway between the locals and a ragged group of displaced Berlin residents fleeing the approaching Red Army. One older girl among them who robs him of his food supplies becomes a lazy plot device. Her character merely exists to prove the Nazi teachings haven’t eroded Nanning’s compassion. His errands around the ruggedly romantic island, periodically swept by rising tides, are all for a trivial, but under the circumstances, hard-to-obtain item: white bread with butter and honey. It’s the only thing his mother, devastated by Hitler’s death, wants to eat. Such generic narrative threads betray the considerable fictionalization of the biographic plot.
Octogenarian screenwriter Hark Bohm, originally slated to direct, based the film on his own childhood on Amrum. Its picturesque nature and wildlife, unique dialect, and distinct architecture create a false, though enticing mood of folkloric innocence. This strategic self-distancing conveys the opening scene in which Nanning and Hermann witness US bombers descending on the coastline. They involuntarily duck their heads, though they know the strategically negligible swath of land is no target. Fascism seems more a matter of neighborly apathies and sympathies. This idea is only ruffled by the stories about Nanning’s absent uncle Theo (Matthias Schweighöfer). Held up by the war overseas, Theo disowned his relatives when they abetted the murder of his Jewish fiancée. Nanning encounters him in a clunky, but pivotal dream sequence.
Theo turns his back on his nephew for the boy’s Nazi heritage. Defiant Nanning argues he can’t help his parents, to which Theo replies: “No, but if I see you, I see them.” It’s the closest Akin gets to acknowledging his whimsical period piece’s moral dubiousness. Karl Walter Lindenlaub’s idyllic landscape shots center their nauseating nostalgia around one of history’s darkest chapters and a nascent Nazi. While Nanning runs around after buttered bread, hundreds of thousands were forced on death marches as the SS cranked up their killing machinery. The empathic heroization of a Hitler Youth member feels all the more cynical since Hark Bohm’s subsequent film career underlines how smoothly Nazi collaborators slid into privileged positions in West Germany.
Akin’s skillful directing elegantly evades Nanning’s political convictions and frames moments of opportunistic reluctance as ethical awakenings. These wistful apologetics are evident in the pictorial poster. It shows the juvenile protagonist striding confidently with his bicycle along the beautiful sandy shore. His brown uniform is only a tiny detail – one all too subtle and easily missed.
- OT: Amrum
- Director: Fatih Akin
- Year: 2025
