Hitlerkantate (2005)

The film takes place from October 1938 to April 1939 in Berlin and at a summer house in Finland. Ursula, a music student, is enthusiastic about the Führer and wants to help the composer Hanns Broch write a cantata for Hitler’s 50th birthday. When her application is rejected, her fiancé, Gottlieb Just, intervenes on her behalf. The Reich Music Chamber, however, has its own interests, shaped by Broch’s communist convictions. The composer wants to work undisturbed at his summer house in Finland. Gottlieb sorts things out, and Ursula is finally allowed to assist Broch after all. Various key experiences, and the bitter realization that she probably does not belong to the chosen master race, soon extinguish Ursula’s enthusiasm. She decides to help Gisela, a pretty Jewish actress, escape a raid led by Gottlieb. The two women, who look very much alike, swap identities. When Gottlieb comes to arrest Gisela, Ursula suddenly stands before him—she slashes her wrists, but survives the suicide attempt. Cured of National Socialism, Ursula eventually meets Hanns again—he visits her at home. His wife Alma has left him after learning of her husband’s passionate affair with Ursula. The outbreak of the Second World War is imminent, and two individuals have already bitterly experienced how the Nazi regime violently intrudes into people’s private lives.