Downfall
In the dead of a November night in 1942, a group of young women are escorted by SS officers through the woods to Wolf''s Lair, Hitler''s headquarters in Eastern Prussia. They are candidates for the post of personal secretary to the Fuehrer. Among them is 22-year-old Traudl Junge, a fresh-faced girl from Munich. Traudl is chosen for the job and she is overcome with joy at the thought of serving beside her Fuehrer. BERLIN, APRIL 20, 1945: Hitler has retreated to a bunker system under the German Chancellery.
Traudl Junge is asleep in her room, deep beneath the ground. She is awakened by tremors from artillery fire. The enemy is getting closer. Charting the last 10 days of Hitler''s life, from his 56th birthday on April 20th, 1945 to his suicide on April 30th, the film uses multiple characters to show the chaos of a country coming apart at the seams, from Hitler''s henchman under the streets of Berlin, to the soldiers and civilians fighting and dying as the Soviet Army ravaged the city above.
Directed by
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast
Bruno Ganz - Adolf Hilter
Alexandra Maria - Lara Traudl Junge
Corinna Harfouch - Magda Goebbels
Ulrich Matthes - Joseph Goebbels
Juliane Koehler - Eva Braun
Heino Ferch - Albert Speer
Christian Berkel - Professor Ernst-Gunther Schenck
Matthias Habich - Professor Werner Haase
Thomas Kretschmann - Hermann Fegelein
Michael Mendl - General Wiedling
Andre Hennicke - General Monke
Ulrich Noethen - Heinrich Himmler
Birgit Minichmayr - Gerda Christian
Rolf Kanies - General Hans Krebs
Justus von Dohnanyi - General Wilhelm Burgdorf
Production Co.
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
Eos Productions
NDR
Neue Constantin Filmproduktion
Degeto Film
Die Nefzers
RaiCinema
ARD/Degeto Film
Bernd Eichinger Fernsehproduktion OHG
ORF
Produced by
Christine Rothe
Bernd Eichinger
Studio
Newmarket Films
Writer
Joachim C Fest
Bernd Eichinger
Traudl Junge
Melissa Muller
Music
Stephan Zacharias
