Film
JIFF: 'Red Orchestra'

Wed, 23.02.2022 -
Sun, 03.04.2022
Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane & Southport

This captivating film re-examines the story of the Red Orchestra, the most important resistance network in Nazi Germany which operated from Berlin to Brussels and as far as Paris.

The Red Orchestra was the name given by the Abwehr Section III.F in August 1941 to the network of anti-Nazi resistance groups and individuals, often operating independently.

These resistance workers printed and distributed prohibited leaflets, posters, and stickers, hoping to incite civil disobedience. They aided Jews and other members of the resistance to escape the regime, documented the atrocities of the Nazis, and transmitted military intelligence to the Allies.
The leading figures of the group included Leopold Trepper, who was Jewish, and Harro Schulze-Boysen, who gathered military secrets to share with the Soviets. In 1942, Hitler’s henchmen were able to track down most of the group by picking up radio transmissions.

The legacy of the "Red Orchestra" in the German public’s collective memory is, to this day, characterized by contrasting viewpoints, captured in politically motivated cinematic interpretations from East and West Germany and the vested interest in historical revisionism of the post-war years and propaganda efforts of the East and the West.

Director Carl-Ludwig Rettinger illustrates this by carefully excerpting feature films made in the early 1970s and interspersing them with interviews with the descendants of the group’s members, offering a fresh approach and a well-rounded historical account.




The legacy of the "Red Orchestra" in the German public’s collective memory is, to this day, characterized by contrasting viewpoints, captured in politically motivated cinematic interpretations from East and West Germany and the vested interest in historical revisionism of the post-war years and propaganda efforts of the East and the West.

Director Carl-Ludwig Rettinger illustrates this by carefully excerpting feature films made in the early 1970s and interspersing them with interviews with the descendants of the group’s members, offering a fresh approach and a well-rounded historical account.