Mein Krieg

In this shockingly honest documentary, Harriet Eder and Thomas Kufus explore the memories of six German soldiers who filmed the front lines during World War II. Contrasting the soldiers' 8 and 16mm footage with present-day interviews, Mein Krieg reveals the pitiful heart of war, on which denial, fear, and hatred feed. In one clip, a plane attacks a German camp and is soon shot down. While the German soldiers examine the wreckage and the unrecognizable pilot, the former soldier/cameraman--almost 50 years later--declares his happiness in killing the man, since he considered the attack "annoying." Much of the film footage here is grisly and terrifying--cities are engulfed in flames; 90,000 wounded refugees sit starving, thirsty, and hopeless in a bleak desert; and women bury their mutilated loved ones in mass graves. Yet despite--or perhaps because of--the unrelenting horror of these images, Mein Krieg serves as a powerful record of young minds twisted by war and the resulting attitudes that persevere a half century later. Recommended. (L. Russo)