Merin Interviews director Dennis Gansel

German director Dennis Gansel's provocative second feature, Beyond The Fall, is an unusual coming of age film.

Set in Berlin in 1942, it focuses on Friedrich (Max Riemelt), an impoverished teenager whose talent for boxing gets him invited to attend a Napola: a Nazi elite school that trained the intended future leaders of the Third Reich-Nazi governors for places like London, Moscow and New York.

Initially, Friedrich simply sees the Napola as his escape route from poverty and, despite adamant opposition from his factory worker father, leaves home to enroll in what turns out to be an environment of extremely harsh, cruel, dehumanizing discipline.

In post-war Germany and until the present, Napolas and their elite graduates-many of whom eventually did assume leadership roles in their homeland during the '50s, '60s and '70s-were a taboo subject. But the lasting effect Napolas have had on German society prompted director Dennis Gansel to make a film about them. The movie's German title is Napola.

Gansel: While I was researching my first feature, which was based on the terrorist assassination of the head of the German Central Bank, I discovered that this man-the most powerful man in the German economy-was trained in a Napola. I found it very frightening that he was educated to be, and at one time actually expected to be governor of Chicago! And, I thought, oh my God, this interesting and important information really isn't widely acknowledged or known. And another thing that drew me to the subject was that my own grandfather taught at a Nazi military school-not a Napola, but close enough-and after the war had a strong career in the German military.

We had a lot of stress and conflict in our family because he was, until his death, very right-wing, and was enraged that his three sons, including my father, refused to go into the military and were conscientious objectors. I always wanted to make a film where I could explore and try to understand the way my grandfather viewed things. When I was young, he told me many true stories about incidents he'd seen and I used some of them in the film-like the cadet who throws himself on a grenade, for example. Basically, the idea behind this movie was to see how people like my grandfather were seduced by the Nazis, and to show how this impacted father-and-son relationships.

Merin: Why is the film stirring so much controversy in Germany?

Gansel:?It forces audiences to a different perspective by presenting an unlikely hero-a kid attending a Nazi elite school. I've seen numerous films in which the heroes were the few people-maybe several hundred-who, like Friedrich's father, opposed the Napolas. But what about the hundreds of thousands of Germans who supported them, who were pro-Hitler, and were guilty of cruelty and atrocities?

They weren't all inherently bad people. They were seduced by the system. I wanted to understand them and why they joined in. Intellectually, I understood the situation-that so many people were out of work and starving, and the Weimar Republic broke down. But emotionally, I never understood these people-including my own grandparents. That's the goal of this film: for audiences to really understand and feel what Friedrich is going through.

He's a young kid who's working with coal and has nothing in life to look forward to, and somebody-in this case, the Nazis-says join us and we'll give you everything you want and need, including a sense of identity and purpose-even a uniform. And, watching the film, you can understand why he goes with them-because your heart is following him.

Merin: Are you concerned the film might be interpreted as apologist?

Gansel: No. I think it's more cautionary. In Germany, unemployment and a weakening economy are now dangerous conditions reminiscent of the pre-Nazi era. Fascism always strengthens when the economy goes down.

That's happening now. As the economy keeps falling, we'll have many more problems with neo-Nazi organizations that work the same way the Nazis did, enlisting people who have no job, no money, no hopes-by saying, "Join us and we'll make you important, give you a place in society."

There's even talk of establishing elite schools again. It's the same psychological pattern, and that's something people can learn when they watch the film.

Merin: How have audiences reacted?

Gansel: A lot of people are shaken by it, because it reflects their own lives and problems. In East Germany, where many impoverished people live in small towns with high unemployment rates, audience members are weeping. Why? Because they see a psychological structure that has to do with their lives. People say watching the film is an emotional roller coaster: At first they really want to be part of the Napola. After 25 minutes, they question whether they'd want to attend and whether it's, indeed, a good idea to have such schools. 40 minutes later, they're convinced that they-and society-should never go back to that way of life. In the end, the film makes audiences think about themselves, about being attracted to something that's obviously wrong?Some people criticize me for showing fascism's attractive side. I tell them everything shown was carefully researched?If you want young people to understand how fascism took over, you have to show it like it was.