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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Protest Drive

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Sophie Scholl: The Final Days on DVD

Far and away the best of the five 2005 Academy Award nominees for Best Foreign Language film, Sophie Scholl hinges on a superb centerpiece performance by Julia Jentsch. She plays the title character, a co-ed arrested (along with her brother and a friend) in 1943 for distributing anti-Nazi fliers. Like a 20th century Joan of Arc in a red sweater and humble hair clips, she faces her accusers with a fearless slate of cold logic. Director Marc Rothemund stages two "hearings," a private one with investigator Robert Mohr (Alexander Held) and a public one with the more demonic Roland Freisler (Andre Hennicke). Sophie matches the former with her decisive will, but the second, engulfed by Nazi ardor, sees her only as a monster.

Starring: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Andre Hennicke, Johanna Gastdorf, Florian Stetter
Written by: Fred Breinersdorfer
Directed by: Marc Rothemund
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: German with English subtitles
Running Time: 117 minutes
Date: March 3, 2006