From Nazis to terrorists, provocative writer/producer Bernd Eichinger is at it again. Looking to repeat his success from Der Untergang (Downfall), Eichinger has turned back to the history books, this time revealing Germany’s greatest post-war threat: the Baader-Meinhof Group. Known later as the Red Army Faction (RAF), these West German ‘urban gorillas’ railed against the country’s US-led establishment, and were responsible for the brutal murders of 34 people.
Though already the subject of numerous documentaries and films, Eichinger and director Uli Edel’s Academy Award nominated adaptation has proven quite controversial. Basing the story on Stefan Aust’s 1985 bestseller of the same name, The Baader-Meinhof Complex tells the tale from the terrorists’ perspectives. Consequently, victims’ families have accused the film of glamorising the RAF’s activity. The widow of the murdered banker Jürgen Ponto has even handed back her Federal Cross of Merit in protest of the German government’s support of the film, which includes the, “almost completely false” portrayal of her husband’s assassination.
Despite the controversy, The Baader-Meinhof Complex still touts itself as the true story of “Europe’s most notorious terrorists”. Indeed, the film promises to revisit the tumultuous past of the post-Nazi generation and the robberies, kidnappings and assassinations that defined the explosive politics of the radical RAF.
Der Baader-Meinhoff Complex will screen in April as part of the Audi Festival of German Films. Australian release date 7 May 2009.
