Music Box Films is bringing director Philipp Kadelbach and screenwriter Stefan Kolditz's
Generation War (
Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter) to Blu-ray. The controversial German television miniseries stars Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein and Ludwig Trepte as five young Germans from 1941-45, and arrives on Blu-ray on May 6th.
Synopsis: Billed as a German
Band of Brothers, the blockbuster miniseries
Generation War vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler. Level-headed, highly-decorated officer Wilhelm (Bruch) goes off to the eastern front with his sensitive younger brother Friedhelm (Schilling). Deeply in love with Wilhelm is Charlotte (Stein), a young nurse who looks forward to serving in the Red Cross. Greta (Schüttler) is a talented singer who longs to become another Marlene Dietrich, while her Jewish boyfriend Viktor (Trepte) fights for his life while hiding among members of the Polish Resistance.
Each character is infused with the certainty of youth, which drains away with each successive month of war as the true horrors of the Third Reich are slowly revealed. At nearly every moment, they are faced with choices between complicity and rebellion, self-preservation and self-sacrifice, blood on their hands and love in their hearts. Eight years in the making and filmed on over 150 sets across Germany, Lithuania and Latvia,
Generation War reveals a country still grappling with how previous generations could have become so tragically misdirected. In Germany, the film has sparked a passionate discussion about personal responsibility and the legacy of guilt for Nazi atrocities.
German critics have widely praised the film, with Der Spiegel calling it a "turning point in German television" and national newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung describing it as "the first and last chance... to ask our grandparents about their true biographies, their immoral compromises... the missed chances to act."
Music Box Films has yet to reveal technical specifications or special features for the 2-disc Blu-ray edition of
Generation War.