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IF NOT US, WHO

by Andres Veiel

synopsis

West Germany in the early 1960s. The country is quiet – for the time being. Bernward Vesper takes up his studies in Tübingen where he is attending Walter Jens’ seminar on rhetoric. Bernward wants to be a writer and spends his nights bashing the keys of a typewriter. At the same time he is keen to defend his father, the poet Will Vesper who was celebrated by the Nazis as a proponent of their ‘Blood and Soil’ ideology. The land where Bernward lives is being suffocated by its past. The war has only been over for fifteen years, old Nazis are back in positions of power, and nobody is prepared to talk about war crimes; the Republic is standing to attention. One day Bernward meets Gudrun Ensslin and her friend Dörte. It soon transpires that Gudrun and Bernward are twin souls. This marks the beginning of an extreme relationship that is unquestioning and excessive, a love story that goes beyond the threshold of pain.

international title: If Not Us, Who
original title: Wer wenn nicht wir
country: Germany
sales agent: The Match Factory
year: 2010
genre: fiction
directed by: Andres Veiel
film run: 125'
release date: DE 10/03/2011, DK 22/09/2011, PL 30/09/2011, FI 07/10/2011, SE 07/10/2011, ES 25/11/2011, CZ 12/01/2012, HU 19/01/2012, UK 02/03/2012
screenplay: Andres Veiel
cast: August Diehl, Susanne Lothar, Alexander Fehling, Sebastian Blomberg, Rainer Bock, Thomas Thieme, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Joachim Paul Assböck
cinematography by: Judith Kaufmann
film editing: Hansjörg Weißbrich
art director: Christian M. Goldbeck
costumes designer: Bettina Marx
producer: Thomas Kufus, Anatol Nitschke, Helge Sasse, Stefanie Groß, Werner Bergengruen, Jörn Klamroth
production: Zero One Film, Deutschfilm, Senator Film Produktion, SWR – Südwestrundfunk, WDR Westdeutscher Rundfunk, ARD Degeto Film GMBH
distributor: Senator Filmverleih, Soda Pictures, Vivarto, Golem Distribución, Film Europe, Film Europe s.r.o., Clorofilm Srl

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