An intriguing first trailer for Oliver Hirschbiegel’s (Diana) 13 Minutes delves into the fascinating story of Georg Elser, a man who single-handedly planned and nearly succeeded in assassinating Hitler with a bomb he made from materials he gathered himself. The German film premiered out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival, and stars Christian Friedel (The White Ribbon) as Elser.
Audiences may recall Bryan Singer’s (X-Men: Days of Future Past) 2008 film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise (Edge of Tomorrow). That film, which also dealt with Hitler assassination plot, received modest reviews and has become a largely forgotten World War II film since its release. 13 Minutes, while similarly dealing with a failed Hitler assassination attempt, is focusing on a different plot entirely than that of Valkyrie. Altogether, there were around thirty assassination attempts on Hitler’s life, although Elser’s plot and the Valkyrie mission were two of the more famous ones (Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds not included).
Director Oliver Hirschbiegel has come full circle with 13 Minutes, which comes eleven years after his breakthrough film Downfall, which chronicled the final days of Hitler as he hid out in his Berlin bunker. Since then, the filmmaker has struggled to make his mark in Hollywood, with the maligned Invasion (2005) and Diana (2013) failing to captivate critics in the same fashion as Downfall had before. With 13 Minutes, Hirschbiegel is returning to a German-language project, as well as a Hitler-themed story, with hopes that he can regain some of the creative potency he established earlier in his career.
13 Minutes does not yet have a release date.
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