
"Helmuth Hübener, the 16-year-old protagonist of Whitaker's historical political drama Truth & Treason, isn't very big for his age. He and his friends in Hamburg go swimming, horse around with each other and shyly make eye contact with girls their age. But otherwise the slender, bookish Helmuth (played by British actor Ewan Horrocks), son of an army officer and a quiet hausfrau, is seemingly an ordinary adolescent onlooker as Germany wages war in 1941."
"Director Whitaker-he made the American GI war movie Saints and Soldiers as well as a separate documentary on the Hübener story, Truth & Conviction -and his co-scenarist Ethan Vincent handle Helmuth's threatening predicament straightforwardly, without stylish digressions. Nazi Germany is an unforgiving environment for an idealistic kid. One day you could get beat up by aggressive Hitler Youths, the next you could discover that the popular novels of Thomas Mann have been banned."
"Helmuth and his family belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The pastor informs his congregation that "Jesus was a revolutionary," but it's shown that ordinary Germans don't know much about Mormons or their beliefs-other than that they don't really belong. Helmuth's Jewish friend Salomon (Nye Occomore) also gets singled out for the hate treatment. That's already enough to warn a young man that anyone might be challenged by police just for walking home alone at night. Helmuth increasingly relies on clandestine BBC broadcasts for information, and trusts his comrades and his"
A 16-year-old Hamburg youth leads an understated resistance against Nazi repression after acquiring a contraband shortwave radio that broadcasts forbidden information. He balances ordinary adolescent activities with secretive efforts to learn and share news while living under constant threat of arrest or death. His family’s Mormon faith and his Jewish friend’s persecution amplify social isolation and moral urgency. Harsh enforcement by Hitler Youth and censorship of literature demonstrate the regime’s reach, and clandestine BBC broadcasts become a vital source of truth and connection for clandestine dissent.
Read at Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley's Leading Weekly
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