Before the Fall, directed by Dennis Gansel, is a German film entitled Napola, which translates "National Police Institutes of Learning," with the subtitle Elite für den Führer. Titles at the end indicate that there were forty Napolas, where teenagers were trained to become SS officers. The movie focuses on the fate of Friedrich Weimer (played by Max Riemelt), who in 1942 goes to a gym to learn how to box after spending a day at work shoveling coal. On the particular day when the film begins, some Napola cadets are challenging the boys at his gym. Heinrich Vogler (played by David Striesow) is a talent scout, looking for the best boys so that he can enroll them in his Napola at Allenstein Castle, which he hopes to beat last year's winner in the boxing competition, the Potsdam Napola. Friedrich makes such a good showing in the ring against a cadet that Heinrich makes him an offer that he finds difficult to refuse--an opportunity to finish high school, become a top boxer, and membership in the elite SS. However, His anti-Nazi father (played by Alexander Held) is so strongly opposed that Friedrich leaves in the middle of the night for Allenstein. When Friedrich arrives, he is exposed to Nazi discipline, including strict physical training, a required neat dorm locker, making his bed in the prescribed manner, Nazi indoctrination, and rigorous military education. Friedrich makes an impression on the other boys because of his boxing prowess, but his chief admirer is Albericht Stein (played by Tom Schilling), who edits the school paper. Soon, Albericht invites Friedrich to the birthday party of Albericht's father, Heinrich (played by Justus von Dohnányi), governor of the military zone in which Allenstein is located. After the celebration, the men go to a boxing ring in the basement, where the father insists that Albericht fight Friedrich, a most unequal match. Clearly, Albericht is at Allenstein because of his father's influence, not due to any aptitude for military training. Indeed, Albericht criticizes Friedrich's willingness to knock out a boxing adversary, goes AWOL when the boys are ordered to track down escaped Russian POWs who are misrepresented as armed, and ultimately commits suicide. Albericht is in love with Friedrich but does not show his feelings; likewise, Friedrich is attracted to Albericht without fully understanding his homoerotic tendencies. After Albericht's suicide, Friedrich is despondent, and he is expelled from Allenstein. A title at the end indicates that there were 15,000 at the various Napolas; when the Nazis were in the last throes of the war, the cadets were sent to the front, ill trained and ill equipped, and suffered a casualty rate of 50 percent. As a film that brings to light facts about the Napolas, especially the brutal training and their fate, the Political Film Society has nominated Before the Fall as best film exposé of 2005 as well as best film raising consciousness about the inferiority of violent to peaceful methods for resolving conflict. MH
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