This film was released on Friday 31st July 2015 and is no longer screening.

Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to Germany and historic events involving Hitler, the subject matter for his breakthrough 2004 film, Downfall. 13 Minutes depicts true events in 1939, just as World War II was escalating, when a carpenter called Georg Elser tried to assassinate Der Führer as he was addressing a Nazi Party meeting in a Munich tavern. It’s a handsome drama that goes into comprehensive detail about the event, and its English language title comes from the mistiming of an explosive device that would have undoubtedly changed history if its detonation had been accurate.

Christian Friedel plays Elser with committed integrity, presenting the character as a humane hero, a Christian pacifist motivated by a sense of disgust about the increasing inhumanity of the War rather than great political convictions, a lack of political affiliation the Nazis struggled to come to terms with. (Notes by  Michael Hayden.)

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