COLOGNE, Germany -- Leading German politicians are calling for a new investigation into a 30-year-old terrorist case after a TV documentary revealed that the German government may have been complicit in the suicide deaths of three members of '70s left-wing terror group the Red Army Faction.
The two-part documentary "RAF", which aired on German public broadcaster ARD this week, investigates the final days of terrorists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, who killed themselves in prison on Oct. 17, 1977.
According to "RAF" directors Stefan Aust and Helmar Buchel, prison authorities and the German authorities had planted illegal wiretaps in the cells of the terrorists and may have been listening in when they planned their joint suicide.
"I find the very idea unbelievable and intolerable, that state authorities may have known about the suicide plans and done nothing to prevent them," Dieter Weifelsputz, a parliamentary spokesman for Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, said Friday as he called for an investigation into the allegations.
The two-part documentary "RAF", which aired on German public broadcaster ARD this week, investigates the final days of terrorists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, who killed themselves in prison on Oct. 17, 1977.
According to "RAF" directors Stefan Aust and Helmar Buchel, prison authorities and the German authorities had planted illegal wiretaps in the cells of the terrorists and may have been listening in when they planned their joint suicide.
"I find the very idea unbelievable and intolerable, that state authorities may have known about the suicide plans and done nothing to prevent them," Dieter Weifelsputz, a parliamentary spokesman for Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, said Friday as he called for an investigation into the allegations.
- 9/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Christopher Roth's "Baader" is the worse sort of terrorist chic. Turning back the clock more than a quarter of a century, the movie traces the exploits of one of the West's first glamour terrorists. West Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang set fires, robbed banks, stole BMWs and killed people from 1967-72. Murderers that they were, there is something now almost quaint in their nonsensical actions, confused ideology, stylish dress and arrogant blunders.
But Roth makes blunders of his own. The film lacks any point of view, letting the story unfold in a pseudo-documentary style that offers neither explanations nor context. Further, the film makes no attempt to reach an audience beyond national borders. Names, dates and references will be unfamiliar to most non-Germans. So despite the world's dramatically increased interest in the subject matter, "Baader"'s insularity dooms it to limited distribution.
Roth indulges in more than a little sensationalism without giving his subject any rigorous examination. Yet even with a "neutral" approach, the movie can't help making this treacherous gang appear foolish. Whether dropping acid during kaffeeklatsches or sunbathing nude in a Jordanian terrorist camp, the Baader-Meinhof crew comes off more as feebleminded anarchists than the tough revolutionaries they aspire to be.
Yet many Germans of that era, especially students and left-wingers, admired them. The movie never delves into what inspired this admiration. Instead Roth keeps you in the cocoon of the gang and their pursuers, led by a fictional police official named Kurt Krone (Vadim Glowna).
The latter is the movie's most remarkable character. A middle-aged leftist, Krone believes in many of the things group co-leader Andreas Baader does. Only he sees means to achieve such political goals without violence. The ambivalent policeman tracks his quarry, gets inside Baader's mind and in one implausible episode shares a late-night smoke with his foe on a deserted country road.
Frank Giering does little to interpret Baader, preferring to cloak this nearly mythological figure in a cloud of tobacco smoke, sunglasses and the street strut of a car thief, which was indeed his criminal career before discovering radical politics. Laura Tonke plays his lover Gudrun as a young woman who believes that she has hooked up with the coolest dude in the West.
But it's mind-boggling how Roth ignores Ulrike Meinhof (Birge Schade), the journalist who turned in her typewriter for a gun. This is, after all, the Baader-Meinhof gang. She is the group's theoretician; Baader is simply its organizational thug. How can you ignore her?
While sticking close to known facts for most of his movie, Roth unaccountably goes for a "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" finale in which Baader goes out with guns blazing instead of his murder or suicide -- to this day most people are not sure which -- in prison.
The picture sparked condemnation from many sides at the festival for its deliberate invention and glorification of Baader. The jury's decision to honor "Baader" with an award for "particular innovation" was greeted with a chorus of boos and whistles.
In truth, Roth adds nothing to what is already known about the gang. Certainly, better films have been made about terrorism in the 1970s by such German filmmakers as R.W. Fassbinder and Volker Schlondorff.
Production values are so-so. The colors have a drab, washed-out look, possibly to emulate German films of that era. Rock numbers, including a bit of techno rock, do give an edgy suspense to the overlong and often repetitive drama.
BAADER
72 Film
Producers: Stephan Fruth, Mark Glaser, Christopher Roth
Director: Christopher Roth
Screenwriters: Christopher Roth, Moritz von Uslar
Directors of photography: Jutta Pohlmann, Bella Halben
Production designers: Attila Saygel, Oliver Kronke, Tobiaas Nolte
Costume designer: Nicole Fischnaller
Editor: Barbara Gies
Color/stereo
Cast:
Andreas Baader: Frank Giering
Gudrun Ensslin: Laura Tonke
Kurt Krone: Vadim Glowna
Ulrike Meinhof: Birge Schade
Karin: Jana Pallaske
Kurt Wagner: Michael Sideris
Running time -- 129 minutes
No MPAA rating...
But Roth makes blunders of his own. The film lacks any point of view, letting the story unfold in a pseudo-documentary style that offers neither explanations nor context. Further, the film makes no attempt to reach an audience beyond national borders. Names, dates and references will be unfamiliar to most non-Germans. So despite the world's dramatically increased interest in the subject matter, "Baader"'s insularity dooms it to limited distribution.
Roth indulges in more than a little sensationalism without giving his subject any rigorous examination. Yet even with a "neutral" approach, the movie can't help making this treacherous gang appear foolish. Whether dropping acid during kaffeeklatsches or sunbathing nude in a Jordanian terrorist camp, the Baader-Meinhof crew comes off more as feebleminded anarchists than the tough revolutionaries they aspire to be.
Yet many Germans of that era, especially students and left-wingers, admired them. The movie never delves into what inspired this admiration. Instead Roth keeps you in the cocoon of the gang and their pursuers, led by a fictional police official named Kurt Krone (Vadim Glowna).
The latter is the movie's most remarkable character. A middle-aged leftist, Krone believes in many of the things group co-leader Andreas Baader does. Only he sees means to achieve such political goals without violence. The ambivalent policeman tracks his quarry, gets inside Baader's mind and in one implausible episode shares a late-night smoke with his foe on a deserted country road.
Frank Giering does little to interpret Baader, preferring to cloak this nearly mythological figure in a cloud of tobacco smoke, sunglasses and the street strut of a car thief, which was indeed his criminal career before discovering radical politics. Laura Tonke plays his lover Gudrun as a young woman who believes that she has hooked up with the coolest dude in the West.
But it's mind-boggling how Roth ignores Ulrike Meinhof (Birge Schade), the journalist who turned in her typewriter for a gun. This is, after all, the Baader-Meinhof gang. She is the group's theoretician; Baader is simply its organizational thug. How can you ignore her?
While sticking close to known facts for most of his movie, Roth unaccountably goes for a "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" finale in which Baader goes out with guns blazing instead of his murder or suicide -- to this day most people are not sure which -- in prison.
The picture sparked condemnation from many sides at the festival for its deliberate invention and glorification of Baader. The jury's decision to honor "Baader" with an award for "particular innovation" was greeted with a chorus of boos and whistles.
In truth, Roth adds nothing to what is already known about the gang. Certainly, better films have been made about terrorism in the 1970s by such German filmmakers as R.W. Fassbinder and Volker Schlondorff.
Production values are so-so. The colors have a drab, washed-out look, possibly to emulate German films of that era. Rock numbers, including a bit of techno rock, do give an edgy suspense to the overlong and often repetitive drama.
BAADER
72 Film
Producers: Stephan Fruth, Mark Glaser, Christopher Roth
Director: Christopher Roth
Screenwriters: Christopher Roth, Moritz von Uslar
Directors of photography: Jutta Pohlmann, Bella Halben
Production designers: Attila Saygel, Oliver Kronke, Tobiaas Nolte
Costume designer: Nicole Fischnaller
Editor: Barbara Gies
Color/stereo
Cast:
Andreas Baader: Frank Giering
Gudrun Ensslin: Laura Tonke
Kurt Krone: Vadim Glowna
Ulrike Meinhof: Birge Schade
Karin: Jana Pallaske
Kurt Wagner: Michael Sideris
Running time -- 129 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/27/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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