Before the Fall

“Men make history. We make the men.”

In 1942, Friedrich Weimer (Max Riemelt) boxes his way into a place at a National Political Academy, a school built to raise the Nazi elite, and enrolls over his father's objections. Dennis Gansel follows his first year among the boys of the seventh column, where hazing, cruelty and the academy's code are part of the daily lessons. Friedrich's closest tie there is Albrecht (Tom Schilling), the ascetic son of the area's governor.