Germany in Autumn (1977)

Synopsis: Fed up with the volatile climate of political terrorism in their country in the late 1970s, an impressive group of West German filmmakers and writers responded with this omnibus collaboration about... Fed up with the volatile climate of political terrorism in their country in the late 1970s, an impressive group of West German filmmakers and writers responded with this omnibus collaboration about Baader-Meinhof, the left-wing terrorist group that bred the Red Army Faction, who kidnapped and murdered German official Hanns Martin Schleyer in 1977. Part personal essay, part political indictment, the film opens with Schleyer's monumental funeral and closes with the funeral of three terrorists who appeared to be scapegoats for Schleyer's death. The film also interweaves documentary footage from Germany's past and present as well as fictional interludes and diatribes from the filmmakers themselves in order to better grapple with the social and political issues surrounding terrorism in post-World War II Germany. The script was cowritten by Heinrich Boll and Peter Steinbach, who worked with each individual director to better develop their own individual feelings concerning Germany's political future. The directors--Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Alexander Kluge, Maximiliane Mainka, Bernhard Sinkel, Edgar Reitz, Katja Rupe, Hans Peter Cloos, and Alf Brustellin--bring their own distinct personalities and visions to GERMANY IN AUTUMN, resulting in a broad, important, and highly charged drama that is widely hailed as a hallmark of the New German Cinema of the 1970s. [More]

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge, Maximiliane Mainka

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge, Maximiliane Mainka
Screenwriter: Heinrich Boll