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The director, best known for his film "Downfall" about the final
days of Adolf Hitler's regime, tells the story of Georg Elser's
heroic attempt to kill the Fuehrer in 1939 by hiding a bomb in a
Munich beer hall where he was due to speak.
Foggy weather forced Hitler to take a train back to Berlin
instead of flying, meaning he had to leave early - 13 minutes
before the bomb exploded.
"This man could have changed history," reads the subtitle of the
film. Hirschbiegel said after the premiere at the Berlin Film
Festival he saw Elser as a perfect example of how one man can
make a difference.
"He compares to Snowden today. He's a man, who without any
personal gain, very humble, says this has to be stopped - this
can't go on, this is cutting at our freedom," he told Reuters.
Snowden caused international uproar in 2013, disclosing details
of electronic surveillance by the United States and Britain.
Facing charges in the United States, he fled to Russia where he
still lives.
Starting with a scene in which Elser stuffs dynamite into a
column behind Hitler's lectern, the film goes on to show his
arrest and interrogation by Gestapo secret police, interspersed
with flashbacks explaining why he sought to kill Hitler.
In the local pub, Nazis celebrate their party becoming the
biggest in parliament and a once-idyllic village is gradually
transformed. Swastika flags are hung, a sign declares "Jews not
welcome" and a Communist is consigned to forced labor.
When interrogated, Elser rails against Hitler's concentration
camps and denounces the war that has just begun.
Hirschbiegel said that until recently the conventional image of
Elser had been "warped" in suggesting he was either a puppet for
the British or U.S. intelligence agencies or even the Nazis, or
that he was just an odd loner.
But the director sees Elser as the first real resistance fighter
of the Nazi era, his tale neglected because he was a
working-class man who acted alone.
"It's embarrassing that... a completely normal man was the only
one who had the balls to say this has to be stopped."
(Additional reporting by Matthias Baehr; Editing by Stephen
Brown and Ralph Boulton)
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