Sophie Scholl: The Final Days poster

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days(2005)

dir. Marc Rothemund

The last days of a student who said no.

Where to watch: Prime Video via Kino Film Collection; rent on Prime (unsub.tv US)Letterboxd ↗

In February 1943 Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were caught leaving anti-Nazi leaflets at Munich University. The film follows her last days, through the interrogation and the People's Court, and draws on the Gestapo transcripts that came out of East German archives. It's mostly two people in a room, one of them very calm.

Why it’s here

The film shows resistance as a decision made by ordinary students, and it spends most of its time on the interrogation. What's punk is Sophie's refusal to give the clerk an inch. What's pedagogical is the transcript-based detail on how a regime builds a case against a conscience. Pairs with the Fascism bundle and Number the Stars.

Where This Film Lives

Setting
Germany • Europe