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Generation War is a German World War II drama split into three parts, where five friends find their lives will be affected in different ways by the war as it takes them away from each other in the summer of 1941, but they vow to return back together six months later, for Christmas.
It was released as “Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter” in its homeland, in March 2013, but the BBC bought it in time to broadcast it during the first year of their endless coverage about the progress of World War I. Which is not this war. Anyhoo, overlooking that…
Wilhelm Winter (Volker Bruch, above) is a Lieutenant, and on the battlefield he is the superior of his younger brother Friedhelm (Tom Schilling), although out in the field they can’t be classed as equals because of the difference in rank. Wilhelm’s also ashamed of his brother, because the former is quite trigger-happy and Friedhelm is more reticent. Wilhelm this that he won’t measure up when the time counts. Whether Friedhelm can prove himself will remain to be seen, but we will see these brothers at loggerheads many a time.
Of the other three, Charlotte (Miriam Stein) is secretly in love with Wilhelm, so she’ll be gutted to be away from him, even though she believes in the Nazi ideology and is looking forward to serving in the Wehrmacht as a nurse in a hospital on the front-line. Her best friend Greta (the stunning Katharina Schüttler, below) plans to sing for the troops all around Europe like a new Marlene Dietrich. She certainly has the talent, so what can go wrong?
And, finally, there’s Greta’s boyfriend Viktor (Ludwig Trepte), and to say he gets the rough end of the stick puts it mildly, since he’s a Jew living in Germany as WW2 breaks out. He wants his parents to leave the country but they’re too beligerent to do so. I don’t want to detail anything about the path he takes, but it’s no less fascinating than all the others and it’s a testament to writer Stefan Kolditz for weaving together their stories and how they all end up on very different paths.
Two other notable inclusions in the sizeable cast, both who are also incredibly beautiful, are Henriette Richter-Röhl as fellow nurse Hildegard, and Alina Levshin, as Polish girl Alina, who Viktor will meet along the way.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the programme and the presentation of the disc.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.