The Baader Meinhof Complex

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, 2008) is Uli Edel's history-driven crime drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. West Germany, early 1970s, the children of a wartime generation are filling the streets.

Reporter Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) walks out on a comfortable marriage and her kids to join Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and his sharp-edged partner Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek). The three build the Red Army Faction and trade slogans against the Vietnam War for bank robberies, arson, kidnappings and bombs. On the other side sits Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), the federal cop hunting them while trying to grasp where all this rage came from. The body count climbs, the founders end up in cells, and even there the fight refuses to stop.

Bernd Eichinger wrote the script from Stefan Aust's book; Aust knew Meinhof personally, which gives the chronology its bite. The film was Germany's submission for the foreign-language Oscar and landed a nomination. Edel shoots it almost like reportage, no glamour, no excuses, just a cold look at idealism curdling into murder. Worth it if you want political cinema that refuses to take sides. Stream The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) online on iFILM.