Before the Fall (2004) on Netflix
NR20041h 57mDramaSportThriller
In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skill wins him a place at a school that trains the Nazi elite. He forges his father's signature to enroll, and at Allenstein befriends Albrecht Stein.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.4/1019,900 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
Friedrich Weimer's father is a factory worker who is critical of the regime, and he refuses to let his son attend a National Political Institute of Education, a boarding school that prepares boys for the Nazi elite. Friedrich forges the permission slip and leaves at night for Allenstein, where boxing is prized. Older students bully the younger ones and teachers look away or join in; Siegfried is mocked for bedwetting. Lessons call Jews and enemies of the state treacherous and inferior and teach survival of the fittest. The teacher who admitted Friedrich drills his boxing and tells him to feel no pity in a fight. His roommate Albrecht Stein, son of Gauleiter Heinrich Stein, writes for the school newspaper and loves the arts, which his father rejects as unmanly.
Cast
- Leon A. Kerstenas Tjaden
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Before the Fall (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dennis Gansel based the character of Friedrich partly on his own grandfather, a right-wing former teacher at a Napola whose failed dream of becoming an architect had drawn him to the movement.
- While making the film, Dennis Gansel was advised by a former student of a Napola, because he wanted the film to feel very authentic.
