THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX An Oscar 2009 winner!

Director: Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F)

A Cast of Stars:
Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others, The Good Shepard), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Johanna Wokalek (Aimee and Jaguar) and Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall). The film is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F) and was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger (2005 Academy Award nominee Downfall), based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust.

PLOT: A lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. Their search is for a life we can all embrace, their method is what we instinctively reject.

Guilt is not on the side of violation of law and order in this film. The guilty are those who make the laws, who enforce the law in this conflict ridden post WWII Germany. The war of the concerned courageous citizens, is unrelenting as the viewer watches the interactions of the group who go into banks to rob and into buildings to bomb, to steal, to plunder what they need to further their "cause".

Their cause is to bring to the attention their agenda of Stop the War in Vietnam, stop killing innocent citizens. But what do they embrace?

There is an invisible line between those who kill and those who don't. A gun is not requisite equipment in every one's wardrobe. This makes the free wielding of this object of murder, in a seemingly quiet domestic environment disturbing, not easy to understand. But then, that is the point of the film; To bring to our attention the thoughts, the ways of Revolutionaries who we might not know and can't understand. After the full experience of two and a half hours of The Beeder Meinhof Complex, one can not continue to think we are all knowing, all caring, all right.

This is not a summer evening's casual date flick. It is a provocative and brilliant creation that will remain in the viewers mind.

Whether or not we want to remember, we will.


LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective