The Captain (2017)
(Der Hauptmann, Robert Schwentke, Germany/Poland/Portugal/France 2017, 118 min., DCP, German w/subtitles)
Rochester Premiere | Primal Screen. Germany, two weeks before the end of World War II. A presumed deserter from Hitler’s corps is being hunted at the margins of a forest. He is starving. His clothes and shoes are falling apart. On the back seat of an abandoned car, the soldier finds a suitcase containing the brand-new uniform of an officer. He wears it, both to protect himself from the cold and to hide from his pursuers. The deserter now looks like a Nazi captain; the problem is, he now must behave as such. Based on a real-life story, this is both a beautifully lensed, thoroughly relentless thriller (some of its most intense scenes are not for the squeamish) and an indictment of the evil embedded in human nature. Not surprisingly, its echoes of German history and contemporary society stirred considerable controversy upon the film’s domestic release. Special introduction by Paolo Cherchi Usai, Senior Curator, Moving Image Department.