The Wehrmacht Exhibition, which toured in Germany between 1995 and 2004 and was visited by more than half a million people, challenged ordinary Germans to rethink what their fathers and grandfathers did during the war. Whereas most had been led to believe that the cold-blooded murder of civilians had been a crime of a minority of Gestapo and S.S. officers, for the first time Germans saw photos and footage of ordinary soldiers gleefully tormenting and executing civilians and P.O.W. The nation was shaken, and large protests were organized by those who believed the evidence was manufactured.

In THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, director Michael Verhoeven interviews historians and experts, including those who allege or deny the crimes, as he explores Germany’s national psyche in the wake of the controversial exhibition. Filming in the killing fields of Ukraine and Belarus and incorporating archival footage unearthed in the exhibition, Verhoeven has created a compelling portrait of a nation as it confronts its past.



“My questions were often met with counter questions, such as: did I know of any other people besides the Germans who would defile their own soldiers who had fought for their country? I am not searching for ready answers. Each country has its own history. And I’ll stick to ours.” - MICHAEL VERHOEVEN


Verhoeven was born in Berlin in 1938 and studied medicine in Berlin and Munich. He completed the state medical examination in 1966 and qualified as a doctor in 1969. Verhoeven appeared as an actor on the stage and screen from the early 1950s to the early 60s and has worked as a screenwriter, producer and director since 1967, having set up his own company Sentana Filmproduktion with wife Senta Berger in 1965. He has received domestic and international awards for films like O.K. (1970), A Terrific Exit (1973), Sunday Children (1979), and The White Rose (1982). His 1989 film The Nasty Girl was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe and won a Silver Bear in Berlin in 1990 as well as a BAFTA Award in 1992. After that, he made My Mother's Courage (1995), Zimmer mit Fruehstueck (TV, 1999), Enthuellung einer Ehe (TV, 2000), which won two awards at the FIPA Biarritz in 2001, and The Unknown Soldier (2006).


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
97 minutes, 35 mm, Color & B/W, In German with English Subtitles, 2006
Directed and Produced by Michael Verhoeven
Edited by Gabriele Kröber, BFS
Score by Martin Grubinger, Mike Herting and the music group Art Percussion