Main Cast: Christian Bluemel, Aaron Hildebrand, Jule Flierl, Luci vonOrg, Harry Baer
Release Year: 2001
Country: DE
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Two young East Germans are forced into joining the Neo-Nazi subculture with the Communist East German government largely to blame in director Winfried Bonengel's 2001 feature film debut Führer EX. Teen friends Heiko (Christian Bluemel) and Tommy (Aaron Hildebrand) lead rambunctious lives in pre-Perestroika East Berlin, with dreams of escaping the repressive government for the freedom of the West. Their world comes crashing down when Tommy is arrested and imprisoned for flag burning. Upon Tommy's release, Heiko learns his friend as gotten involved with Neo-Nazis. Now thoroughly disenchanted, the friends attempt a border crossing -- which only succeeds in getting them arrested and thrown into prison. Once again, Tommy teams up with the resident Neo-Nazi gang -- but Heiko initially resists until he suffers a particularly brutal prison rape. Tommy and the Neo-Nazis come to Heiko's aid via harsh vengeance, which succeeds in drawing the young man into the Neo-Nazis group as well as feeding his psychological descent into hate. Tommy begins to see the dangerousness in Heiko's newfound fanaticism, but may be helpless to bring his once peace-loving friend back to his senses. Führer Ex was a competing film at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
Cast
Christian Bluemel - Heiko
Aaron Hildebrand - Tommy
Jule Flierl - Beate
Luci vonOrg - Mother
Harry Baer - Friedhelm Kaltenbach
Credit
Rainer Mockert - Co-producer, Brooks Riley - Co-producer, Wiebke Toppel - Co-producer, Elke von Sivers - Costume Designer, Winfried Bonengel - Director, Monika Schindler - Editor, Loek Dikker - Composer (Music Score), Michael Beckmann - Musical Direction/Supervision, Thomas Stammer - Production Designer, Frank Barbian - Cinematographer, Laurens Straub - Producer, Clementina Hegewisch - Producer, Oliver Grafe - Sound Mixer, Oliver Grafe - Sound/Sound Designer, Winfried Bonengel - Screenwriter, Ingo Hasselbach - Screenwriter, Douglas Graham - Screenwriter
