Review of Truth and Betrayal – A compelling and moving treatment of a teenager facing the Gestapo | film

THis World War II feature film tells the story of German resistance figure Helmuth Hübner, a Mormon teenager from Hamburg who went from being a member of the Hitler Youth to distributing leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. According to the film, Hübner (Ewan Horrocks) was partly inspired to act because his Jewish friend Salomon Schwarz was shipped to Auschwitz – although Hübner’s main motivation, apparently, was that he wanted people to know the truth, hence the film’s homonymous title.

It would be all too easy to dismiss this film as an unseemly Christian melodrama promoting a savior, no matter how historically accurate it may be. It’s especially tempting given that one of the companies it backs is the religiously oriented Angel Studios, which brought us the QAnon-adjacent Voice of Freedom a few years ago. Plus, poor Salomon (Nai Okumor) barely makes much of an appearance before he meets his epiphany-inducing fate. He certainly doesn’t get as much screen time as Hübner’s main antagonist, Gestapo officer Erwin Mossner (Rupert Evans), who we know has a soft side and a load of tragedy to endure before he starts picking people’s nails off.

However, having said all this, it must be admitted that the acting is very good indeed – particularly from Horrocks and Evans, whose climactic conversation about the nature of truth, literary skill and sacrifice has a real intensity to Death and the Maiden, heightened by compelling and powerful dialogue. The last 20 minutes also largely crackle and crackle, providing a satisfying nod to the fate-revealing and haunting final text of what happened next, which culminates with an old quote from Alexei Navalny. In short, this is a flawed film, but it feels like its heart is in the right place, and any anti-fascist message is welcome and timely in these dark times.