Film Archive
Downfall (Untergang, Der)
Berlin, April 1945. A nation awaits its downfall. Fighting rages in the streets of the capital. Hitler and his closest confidantes have barricaded themselves in the Fuehrer’s Bunker. Among them Traudl Junge, Hitler’s private secretary. Outside the situation escalates. Although Berlin can no longer be held, the Fuehrer refuses to leave the city. While the full force of the war crashes down over his folk, he stages his final departure. Only hours before their joint suicide, he marries Eva Braun. Then their corpses are burned so that they do not fall into the hands of the enemy. Many others also choose suicide. As the situation becomes ever more hopeless, Magda Goebbels poisons her six children before she and her husband take their own lives. Shortly thereafter Traudl Junge and several others manage to escape at the last minute...
Oliver Hirschbiegel scored a sensational success with the feature film The Experiment (Das Experiment, 2001). This exciting psycho-thriller drew more than 1.6 million spectators to the theaters and won many awards in Germany and abroad including, the Bavarian Film Award 2001, the Audience Award for the theatrical film of the year at the German Film Award presentation in 2001, Best Director at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2001, and the People´s Choice Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2002, just to name a few. Hirschbiegel has been a major presence in the German television industry since the mid 1980s. He has directed thrillers and detective dramas, including various episodes of the detective series Rex – A Cop´s Best Friend and Tatort. Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004) is his third full-length feature film and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 in the category Best Foreign Language Film. A selection of his other award-winning films includes: Das Go! Projekt (TV, 1986), Rain City (Moerderische Entscheidung – Umschalten erwuenscht, TV, 1991), Trickser (TV, 1996), Rex – The Early Years (Rex – Die fruehen Jahre, TV, 1997), The Judgement (Das Urteil, TV, 1997), Mortal Friends (Todfeinde, TV, 1998), and My Last Film (Mein letzter Film, 2002).Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2004
Director Oliver Hirschbiegel
Screenplay Bernd Eichinger
Director of Photography Rainer Klausmann
Editor Hans Funck
Music by Stephan Zacharias
Production Design Bernd Lepel
Producer Bernd Eichinger
Production Company Constantin Film Produktion/Munich, in co-production with NDR/Hamburg, WDR/Cologne, Degeto Film/Frankfurt, ORF/Vienna, EOS Production/Munich, RAI Cinema/Rome
Principal Cast Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Koehler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann
Casting An Dorthe Braker, Uwe Buenker
Special Effects The Nefzers
Length 155 min, 4,240 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English
Sound Technology 5.1 Dolby Digital
Festival Screenings Toronto 2004 (Gala), Goteborg 2005, Berlin 2005 (German Cinema), Mar del Plata 2005 (In Competition), Santa Barbara 2005, Jameson Dublin 2005, Shanghai 2005, Cairo 2005
Awards 3 Bavarian Film Awards 2004 (Best Actor: Bruno Ganz, Best Producer: Bernd Eichinger, Audience Award), Bambi 2004, Special Jury Award Santa Barbara 2005, Silver Astor Mar del Plata 2005, Best Foreign Film BIFA London 2005
With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer BankenFonds, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)
German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
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Trailer
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