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Dying the way she lived

Film: Sophie Scholl – the final days

Simon Smart

What went through Sophie Scholl’s mind in the last seconds of her life, as she lay handcuffed on a cold bench  - the heavy blade of a guillotine raised above her? Where did her thoughts take her as the macabre machine prepared to bring an abrupt, cruel end to her short and remarkable life? Viewers of the film Sophie Scholl – the final days, may well ask that question at its conclusion. Some hints along the way might help with an answer.

The 2005 movie tracks the last week of the life of a 21-year old German student, who in February 1943, along with her brother Hans, was executed by the Nazis for treason. Her crime – to distribute leaflets with anti-Nazi messages across Germany and in the University in Munich.

Sophie Scholl’s story has been told before but historical records of the interrogation and trial held in East German archives and inaccessible until 1990 gave director Mark Rothemund and screenplay writer Fred Breinersdorfer the fuel for the most comprehensive depiction yet. Nominated for an Oscar, the film manages to portray a stirring but skilfully unsentimental story of true courage and integrity in the face of an immense and frightening enemy.
 		 
   
  

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