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Following the Fuhrer Reviews

1986
1 hr 30 mins
Drama
NR

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Berlin-born filmmaker Erwin Leiser cemented his reputation with the low-key 1959 documentary Mein Kampf. Combining newsreel footage and eyewitness interviews, this film established Leiser's cinematic throughline of exploring Germany's tragic past. 1986's Following the Fuhrer, codirected by Adolf Winkelman combines fact with fiction as it chronicles the misadventures of a group of Third Reich advocates in the closing days of the war. As their world literally explodes around them, these faithful few huddle together to survive, trying and failing to sustain their beliefs with Hitlerian fantasies. Though the documentary footage can't be faulted in Following the Fuhrer, the film stumbles whenever the characters are given lines to speak.

A worthy effort from director Leiser that artfully combines newsreel footage and scenes from 1930s-era films with newly shot scenes to create an impression of the everyday life of ordinary citizens in Nazi Germany. No specific plot or story line runs through the film; a series of short vignettes simply describes people living with the sacrifices necessitated by political oppression. This film is similar in many ways to Leiser's 1960 documentary MEIN KAMPF, in which he combined footage from a variety of sources during Nazi times in Germany to create an in-depth portrait of Hitler and the sociopolitical environment that allowed him to survive. (In German; English subtitles.)