Sophie Scholl - The Final Days February 2, 2007

This film is presented by FLICS. Admission is $4.

Munich, 1943: Sophie and Hans Scholl are members of the "Weiße Rose" (White Rose), a resistance group against the Nazi regime. When the siblings lay out fliers at the university, they are caught by the caretaker who calls the Gestapo. After their imprisonment, they are interrogated for days. In the beginning, Sophie manages to bluff the questioning official Robert Mohr, but Hans finally confesses everything. Now Sophie vindicates her ideals, but also tries to protect the other group members. On February 22nd, the Scholls and their aide Christoph Probst are accused of high treason and sentenced to death. As the execution takes place the same day, Sophie has to take leave of her family...

This film is not about the „Weisse Rose" (White Rose) resistance group, nor is it about Sophie Scholl. It sticks very closely to its title, and only deals with the last days of Sophie Scholl. Having staked out such a narrow subject, Marc Rothemund is able to narrate the story in great detail. This allows the use of pauses in the dialogue which add to the credibility and drama. I read the official version of the interrogation before seeing the film, and felt that a very good effort had been made to reconstruct what may have actually happened. I also felt that the atmosphere which the film conveyed to be entirely plausible for that time, which I am not old enough to have lived through. For instance, the characters always seemed to be holding back, and not opening their feelings to each other.

Because the official version of the interrogation was dictated by Robert Mohr, it is certain to contain many gaps, such as the lines of questioning before reaching Sophie Scholl's quoted replies. The film may have tended to be too dramatic in filling those gaps. It was surely too dramatic in showing so many chance encounters in the various corridors. Perhaps this tendency to over-dramatise was necessary to present the otherwise rather dry historical events. At least the final result was almost believable, in contrast to many films about the past, and it was an improvement on earlier films covering the White Rose, simply because so much more has come to light since they were made.

Official Website: http://www.flics.org/