Nackt unter Wölfen

In the spring of 1945, a Polish prisoner smuggles a young boy into the Buchenwald concentration camp inside a suitcase. Two fellow prisoners hide the child in the personal effects room—thereby putting not only themselves but also the secret resistance group in grave danger. Time and again, the prisoners are faced with the agonizing question of whether hundreds of other lives may be risked for the sake of the child’s life. Frank Beyer’s film is based on the novel of the same name by Bruno Apitz, who himself survived eight years in Buchenwald. Beyer deliberately avoids a naturalistic depiction of the atrocities and relies on indirect storytelling—which he always considered the more effective method. Armin Mueller-Stahl’s character embodies a quiet form of resistance born of a sense of responsibility.
(Florian Widegger/Editorial Team)