The White rose [NTSC]

The first of a trilogy by Verhoeven (followed by The Nasty girl (1990) and Mother’s courage (1996)), that examines the moral implications of individual events and actions that occurred during the Third Reich, and offers a critical analysis of their impact on the present. Based on on a true story of student resistance to Nazi rule, “The White rose” is set in Verhoeven’s native Bavaria, a predominantly Catholic region. During the Nazi era, a group of German students and their professor formed a secret society dedicated to protesting the regime. Known collectively as the ‘White Rose’, the Munich-based group distributed anti-Hitler literature that exposed Nazi persecutions. Their resistance to the Nazis inspired a student uprising at the University of Munich in 1943, and led to a massive Gestapo search for the ‘Bolshevist instigators.’ Eventually they were caught, tried and killed. After the film’s release, the German government initially refused to allow it to be shown abroad due to an epilogue which pointedly observed that the legal judgment condemning the White Rose society had never been rescinded. Ultimately, the political controversy surrounding Verhoeven’s film directly caused the German government to officially invalidate the Nazi ‘People’s Court’ system that sentenced the group to death. Cast includes Lena Stolze, Martin Benrath, Wulf Kessler and Oliver Siebert. In German with English subtitles.