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Synopsis

During Hitler's anniversary speech on November 8, 1939, a man is arrested on the Swiss border for possession of suspicious objects. Just minutes later, a bomb explodes in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, immediately behind the Führer's lectern, killing eight people. The man is Georg Elser (Christian Friedel), a carpenter from Königsbronn in the Swabia region. When a map of the site of the assault and detonators are found on him, he is sent to the head of the Criminal Police in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaussner) and the head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller (Johann von Bülow) to be questioned. From them, Elser learns that his attempt has failed — that the man he wanted to kill in order to stop the bloodshed of the World War that had just begun, has left the Bürgerbräukeller 13 MINUTES before the explosion. For days, Elser is interrogated by Nebe and Müller, for days, he holds out against their questions. Until he finally confesses and relates the story of his deed.

Thus, Elser remembers how National Socialism slowly metastasised in his home village. How he attempted to oppose it, together with his best friend Josef Schurr (David Zimmerschied) and a few others. How he met Elsa (Katharina Schüttler), fell in love with her, but because of his plans had to turn away from her, his friends and his family. And how, finally, he acted: How he built the bomb, and installed it at the site in long nights of work.

Cast

  • CHRISTIAN FRIEDELGeorg Elser
  • KATHARINA SCHÜTTLERElsa
  • BURGHART KLAUSSNERArthur Nebe
  • JOHANN VON BÜLOWHeinrich Muller
  • FELIX EITNERHans Eberle
  • DAVID ZIMMERSCHIEDJosef Schurr
  • RÜDIGER KLINKErich
  • SIMON LICHTSS Obergruppenf√ºhrer
  • CORNELIA KÖNDGENMaria Elser
  • MARTIN MARIA ABRAMLudwig Elser
  • MICHAEL KRANZFranz Xaver Lechner
  • GERTI DRASSLLore
  • LISSY PERNTHALERProtokollf√ºhrerin
  • VALENTINA REPETTOBrunhilde
  • ANNA UNTERBERGERAnna
  • ANTON ALGRANGDr. H√ºbner
  • MICHAEL EHNERTKubjureit
  • UDO SCHENKAdolf Hitler
 

Filmmakers

 

Photo Gallery

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Christian Friedel · Georg Elser

Born 1979 in Magdeburg, Christian Friedel, after high school graduation and alternative service finished his drama studies at the Munich Otto-Falckenberg-School in 2004. In the same year he went into his first engagement at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel and guested at the same time at the Munich Kammerspiele. 2005 he took over a part in "Tales of the Vienna Woods" at the Salzburg Festival, a co-production with the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel. 2006 he was hired by the Schauspiel Hanover and under the directorship of Wilfried Schulz played, among others, " Ruprecht" in "Der zerbrochene Krug", "Franz Moor" in "Die Räuber" as well as the title role in "Prinz Friedrich von Homburg". In 2009 he followed Wilfried Schulz to the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, where he was permanently employed until the summer of 2013 and appeared, among others, as "Don Carlos" (invited to the Theatertreffen 2011), "Peer Gynt", "Oedipus Rex" and "Hamlet". He can still occasionally be seen on the Dresden stage as a guest actor. For his theatrical roles, Christian Friedel has received many awards, among them the 2010 Erich Ponto- Preis of the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. Apart from the theatre, Christian Friedel, could during the past years increasingly be seen on the big screen. After a few shorts, he appeared in a feature film for the first time in 2009 — in Michael Haneke's multiple-award winning The White Ribbon. It was followed by smaller roles as in Chicken with Plums (2011) by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, as well as leading roles in Closed Season (2012) by Franziska Schlotterer and at the side of Matthias Schweighöfer and Friedrich Mücke in the film version of Wladimir Kaminer's bestselling novel of the same name, Russian Disco (2012). Most recently, Christian Friedel acted in Christoph Röhl's TV-drama Die Auserwählten as well as the main lead, Heinrich von Kleist, in Jessica Hausner's Amour Fou (2014), which celebrated its world premiere in 2014 during Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Besides acting, Christian Friedel has a passion for music. He plays the piano, released his first EP "The Closer" in 2011 and in 2012 formed the band Woods of Birnam, releasing their debut album in November 2014.

Katharina Schüttler, born 1979 in Cologne, after graduating high school studied drama at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. Even during her studies she played, among others, Nabokov's "Lolita" and Schiller's"Jungfrau von Orleans" at the Staatstheater Hanover. For Michael Hofmann's film Sophiiiie! (2002) she was awarded the Förderpreis Deutscher Film at the Munich Filmfest. Katharina Schüttler could be seen on the big screen e.g. in The White Sound (2000), The State I Am In (2000), Truth or Dare (2004), 3º kälter (2005), Olivier Assayas’ terrorist epic Carlos (2010), Oh Boy (2012), Free Fall (2012) and Age of Cannibals (2014); most recently, she was on camera in the 2014 film version of Johanna Spyri's novel "Heidi", which will reach theatres in 2015 as well. For The Day Will Come (2009) she received the Bayerischer Filmpreis as best new talent actress.

For TV as well, Katharina Schüttler appeared in many movies in recent years, among others in Schimanski:Tod in der Siedlung (2007), Bella Block:Vorsehung (2009) and Danger: Mother in Law (2005), for which she was awarded the Günter Strack-Nachwuchspreis. In 2009 she could be seen as Marcel Reich-Ranicki's wife Tosia in in his biopic Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Mein Leben; 2013 in the sensational and multiple-award winning miniseries Generation War. Most recently, Katharina Schüttler was on camera together with Ulrich Tukur for Roland Suso Richter's TV-movie Grzimek.

Apart from her film and TV work, Katharina Schüttler played many parts at the Berliner Schaubühne. In 2006, magazine Theater today voted her Actress of the Year and she received the first time German Theatre Award "Der Faust" for her performance in the title role of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler". 2010 she was awarded the Ulrich Wildgruber-Preis for her exceptional achievements in film and on stage.

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Katharina Schüttler · Elsa

Katharina Schüttler, born 1979 in Cologne, after graduating high school studied drama at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. Even during her studies she played, among others, Nabokov's "Lolita" and Schiller's"Jungfrau von Orleans" at the Staatstheater Hanover. For Michael Hofmann's film Sophiiiie! (2002) she was awarded the Förderpreis Deutscher Film at the Munich Filmfest. Katharina Schüttler could be seen on the big screen e.g. in The White Sound (2000), The State I Am In (2000), Truth or Dare (2004), 3º kälter (2005), Olivier Assayas’ terrorist epic Carlos (2010), Oh Boy (2012), Free Fall (2012) and Age of Cannibals (2014); most recently, she was on camera in the 2014 film version of Johanna Spyri's novel "Heidi", which will reach theatres in 2015 as well. For The Day Will Come (2009) she received the Bayerischer Filmpreis as best new talent actress.

For TV as well, Katharina Schüttler appeared in many movies in recent years, among others in Schimanski:Tod in der Siedlung (2007), Bella Block:Vorsehung (2009) and Danger: Mother in Law (2005), for which she was awarded the Günter Strack-Nachwuchspreis. In 2009 she could be seen as Marcel Reich-Ranicki's wife Tosia in in his biopic Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Mein Leben; 2013 in the sensational and multiple-award winning miniseries Generation War. Most recently, Katharina Schüttler was on camera together with Ulrich Tukur for Roland Suso Richter's TV-movie Grzimek.

Apart from her film and TV work, Katharina Schüttler played many parts at the Berliner Schaubühne. In 2006, magazine Theater today voted her Actress of the Year and she received the first time German Theatre Award "Der Faust" for her performance in the title role of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler". 2010 she was awarded the Ulrich Wildgruber-Preis for her exceptional achievements in film and on stage.

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BURGHART KLAUSSNER · Arthur Nebe

Burghart Klaussner studied in his home town Berlin, complementing his studies with a drama course at the Max Reinhardt School and made his debut under George Tabori in his Vietnam play "Pinkville" . Since then, he has been engaged at nearly all important stages of German language, and furthermore made his debut as a director in 2006 at the Hamburg Kammerspiele. In 2012, he was honoured for the main role in "Death of a Salesman" in Hamburg, with the German Theatre Award "Der Faust" for best actor. After his first movie appearance in 1980 (the leading part in Ziemlich weit weg) and numerous other films, he became known to a wider audience in cinema hits like The Superwife (1995), Rossini (1996) and Good Bye, Lenin! (2003). For Requiem (2005) he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for the Deutscher Filmpreis 2006, after he had received that award already in 2005 for his performance in The Edukators (2004). At the International Filmfestival Locarno he was awarded the Silver Leopard as Best Male Actor, for his lead role in The Man from the Embassy (2006), and on the small screen he could be seen in many TV-movies and series since 1985. For his part in Der Novembermann (2007) he was nominated for the 2008 Goldene Kamera as Best German Actor. In internationally cast films, like the Oscar-nominated film version of The Reader (2008), he was as convincing as in Michael Haneke's drama The White Ribbon (2009), which won the Palme d'Or at the International Film Festival in Cannes, then the Golden Globe and the Europäischer Filmpreis and received an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Film. For his performance in it he was decorated with the Preis der deutschen Filmkritik and as Best Actor with the Deutscher Filmpreis 2010. Further films were Diplomacy (2014), Inbetween Worlds (2013), The Silence (2009), Goethe! (2009), Lessons of a Dream (2010) and Invasion (2011). At the Berlinale 2013, together with Isabella Rossellini in Nono, the Zigzag Kid (2012), he opened the Children's' Filmfest of the Filmfestspiele, and could be seen in Bille August's Night Train to Lisbon (2012).The 2013 ZDF three-parter Hotel Adlon — A Family Saga, in which he acted as the founder of the famous Berlin Hotel, presented him with excellent reviews and an audience of millions. Burghart Klaussner is a Member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg and the Deutsche Filmakademie, where he was elected a board member in 2010. Most recently he faced the cameras in Lars Kraume's cinematic feature project Die Heimatlosen/Fritz Bauer in the title part.

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Johann von BÜlow · Heinrich Müller

Born 1972 in Munich, Johann von Bülow received his schooling at the Otto Falckenberg Schule and set off in his career as theatre actor. From 1996 to 1998 he was employed at the Staatstheater Mainz, followed by engagements at the Schauspiel Leipzig and at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. As early as 1995 he attracted attention on the big screen, when he appeared together with Franka Potente in After Five in the Forest Primeval (1995).This was followed by further feature parts, among other films Bülow acted in 3º kälter (2005), decorated in Locarno, in Hans Steinbichler's drama Winter Journey (2006), The Stranger in Me (2008), Berlin 3 6 (2009), Famous Five (2011) and Heiter bis wolkig (2012). Most recently he appeared in cinemas in November 2014 with Labyrinth of Lies. On television, Johann von Bülow could be seen in recent years in several Episodes of Tatort, in Unspoken (2009), in Carl and Bertha (2011), in the successful ZDF miniseries Hotel Adlon — A Family Saga (2012), in the SAT.1 satire The Plagiator (2013) and finally in Roland Suso Richter's Die Spiegel-Affäre (2014), and currently in the successful ARD series Homicide Hills (2014), among many other titles.

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Oliver Hirschbiegel · Director

Born 1957 in Hamburg, Oliver Hirschbiegel went to sail the seas at first, then studied painting and graphic arts at the Hamburg Hochschule der Künste, where he then turned to film. First he celebrated successes as a performance artist, developed video magazine "Infermental" and finally wrote his first script with Das Go! Projekt (1986), which he also filmed as director. In the ensuing years he took over the direction of several TV movies, among them Murderous Decisions (1991), Tatort — Kinderspiel (1992), the series Kommissar Rex (1994), Trickser (1997), Mortal Friends (1998) as well as the chamber piece Das Urteil (1997) which garnered rave reviews. 2001, after having received several rewards, the director had his breakthrough on the big screen as well with psychological thriller The Experiment — a success which was honoured with five Deutsche Filmpreise. In 2002 he followed this with another experiment: Mein letzter Film, a monologue spoken by Hannelore Elsner.Two years later, he attracted worldwide attention with the exceptional piece, produced and written by Bernd Eichinger, Downfall about Hitler's last days in the Führerbunker, based on Joachim Fest's bestseller and the records of Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. In 2005 he followed it with Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude, as Mein letzter Film before a one-hander, this time with Ben Becker, soliloquising about German-Jewish relations. 2007 Oliver Hirschbiegel finally celebrated his Hollywood debut with Invasion, a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in the leading roles.The following features, Hirschbiegel realized in English as well: the drama Five Minutes of Heaven (2009), receiving the award for Best Direction at the Sundance Film Festival, which deals with the conflicts in Ireland, as well as most recently Diana (2013) with Naomi Watts in the title role. In international television, Oliver Hirschbiegel was successful with the first four episodes of the series Borgia, followed in 2014 by the season finale of US series Turn (AMC Studios).Thirteen Minutes is Oliver Hirschbiegel's first German production in nine years.

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Boris Ausserer · Producer (Lucky Bird Pictures)

Boris Ausserer, born in Annecy/France, complemented his studies at the HFF München, which he graduated from in 1998, with many sojourns abroad, in Cambridge, Paris, New York and Los Angeles among others. In 1998 he was working at the MTM Filmproduction as production assistant; in 2000 he changed to Bavaria Film as a junior producer and one year later as producer for international co- productions to Bavaria Media Television. In 2003 he became acting head of the department for co- productions at Bavaria Media Television. During this time, he oversaw, in diverse functions, the development and financing of several TV projects with important European partners (TF1, Mediaset, Rai, France2, M6,TVC,TVN, ORF, etc.). in 2008 he changed to Yellow Bird Pictures GmbH as a producer, where he handles international co-productions and commissioned productions. Since 2012 he has been acting as a producer for Lucky Bird Pictures. 2015 Ausserer won the Bavaria Producers Award for the best motion pictures for 13 MINUTES.

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Oliver Schündler · Producer (Lucky Bird Pictures)

Oliver Schündler, son of actor and director Rudolf Schündler, has been working on numerous theatre- and TV-projects, as an assistant director and dramatic adviser, so with Robert Lépage, Georg Tabori, Leander Haußmann and Matthias Hartmann at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, as well as with Peter Stein and Luca Ronconi at the Salzburg festival, before switching to the Bavaria Film Gruppe in 1994.There he realized TV movies and series as producer. From 2000 on, Oliver Schündler was responsible for the entire division of international co-production at Bavaria Film Gruppe; some time later, he also directed the worldwide TV licence sales. Since 2004, Schündler has also been Managing Director at Bavaria Media Italia s.r.l. in Rome and since Oktober 2005 co-manager of German United Distributors. Since 2008 he has been managing director and producer, and after an MBO in 2012 sole owner of Lucky Bird Pictures, which came about through a joint venture of Schündler's with Swedish Yellow Bird (Millenium,Wallander). 2015 Schündler won the Bavaria Producers Award for the best motion pictures for 13 MINUTES. Schündler is a father of four and together with his family lives in Grünwald near Munich.

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Fred Breinersdorfer · Producer (Delphi Medien GmbH), Screenwriter

Author and lawyer Fred Breinersdorfer was born in Mannheim in 1946, read law and social studies in Mainz and Tübingen and did his doctorate in constitutional law. After a brief stint in politics (running for Parliament in 1994 in Stuttgart, for the SPD), Breinersdorfer dedicated himself completely to writing, especially script-writing. He had his debut as a director in 2009 with Zwischen heute und morgen, a film version of the novel "Eden Plaza" by Dagmar Leupold for theatrical release. As a producer, he realized several films together with colleagues.

For 17 years he practiced law in Stuttgart, specializing in university law, especially in numerus clausus cases. Since 2004 he has been admitted at the Berlin Landgericht and Kammergericht, and is a partner in the law firm Müller Radack. In 1980 his first "Abel"-mystery was published by Rowohlt, "Reiche Kunden killt man nicht"; numerous further thrillers, novels, short stories and dramatic works followed over the ensuing years.

As a scriptwriter, he started out with the classic Schimanski-Tatort Zweierlei Blut (1984), with co- author Felix Huby, directed by Hajo Gies.This was followed by more than 20 Tatort-productions for the SWR (all titles containing the word fever),WDR, NDR, MDR, SR and BR with scripts by Fred Breinersdorfer — as well as numerous feature films, mostly crime fiction, among them Der Hammermörder (1990), a film version of his novel of the same title, Quarantäne (1989), Angst (1993), Duell der Richter (1999) or the two-parters Das tödliche Auge (1992), Der Mann mit der Maske (1994), Mein ist die Rache (1997), Final Hope (2001), Der verlorene Sohn (2009) and The Chinese Man (2011), the script of the novel of the same title by Henning Mankell, which he wrote together with his daughter Léonie-Claire. In 1986 the ZDF started a loose series of feature films, about Breinersdorfer's Anwalt Abel starring Günter Maria Halmer in the title role; 20 films were made until 2000.

Fred Breinersdorfer's scripts were filmed by directors like Peter Schulze-Rohr, Roland Suso Richter, Nico Hofmann, Marc Rothemund, Christian Görlitz, Michael Verhoeven, Rolf Schübel and Oliver Hirschbiegel, his characters were embodied by actors like Bruno Ganz, Iris Berben, Gert Voss, Dieter Pfaff, Susanne von Borsody, Jürgen Hentsch, Christian Redl, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Nina Petri, Eva Mattes, Alexander Held, Julia Jentsch, Hannelore Elsner, Axel Prahl, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Katja Flint or Kostja Ullmann. His debut as cinema author and producer began in 2005 with Sophie Scholl — Die letzten Tage. Fred Breinersdorfer is an Honorary Professor, from 1997 to 2005 he was the chairman of the VS (Verband Deutscher Schriftsteller within the union ver.di), is a member of P.E.N-Zentrum Germany, of several academies (Deutsche Filmakademie and Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste) as well as a member of the board of directors of the VG Wort. For 2003 he was called on the jury for the "Newspeak of the Year".Together with Peter Schmidt he founded, in 1986,the guild of mystery writers "Das Syndikat"; in spring 2011 he started the project "Filmmakers in Prison" together with the Deutsche Filmakademie, which in cooperation with the Berlinale and Amnesty International supports persecuted film makers. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden- Württemberg.

His scripts and films received numerous nominations — so for the Deutscher Fernsehpreis, Deutscher Filmpreis and the European Film Award — and also awards, with, among others, the Adolf-Grimme- Preis in Gold, the German and European Film Awards and the ver.di Television Award. Sophie Scholl — Die letzten Tage was nominated for the Oscar in the category "Best Film not in English language" in 2006.

Fred Breinersdorfer lives in Berlin. He has two children, the lawyer and scriptwriter Léonie- Claire Breinersdorfer and the architect Julian Breinersdorfer.

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Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer · Screenwriter

Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer was born in Stuttgart on May 21, 1976. She read law at the Eberhard- Karls-Universität Tübingen and in November 2002 graduated with the Zweites Juristisches Staatsexamen. In 2003/2004 she completed the German/French Masterclass for International Co- production the the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and the Paris film school La Fémis. Since 2005, Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer is working as a freelance writer and lawyer. Since October 2007, she has been director of the Delphi Medien GmbH, together with her father. Films where she contributed to the script are,among others, the Tatort films Aus derTraum (2006),DerTote am Straßenrand (2007) and Ein neues Leben (2012), Der verlorene Sohn (2009) and the Mankell adaption The Chinese Man (2011), all together with Fred Breinersdorfer, as well as, in sole authorship, episodes of the series SOKO Stuttgart (2010) and SOKO 5113 (2013), among others. Furthermore, in 2006 the novel "Das Hurenspiel" by Léonie- Claire Breinersdorfer has been published.

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Judith Kaufmann · Cinematography

Judith Kaufmann, born 1962 in Stuttgart, grew up in in Berlin, where she studied at the Staatliche Fachschule für Optik und Fototechnik. She gathered her first experience as camera assistant for, among others, Gernot Roll and Thomas Mauch. Since 1991, she is Chief cinematographer.

Judith Kaufmann is counted among the most renowned German camera operators and has created many decorated films, from Vanessa Jopp's directorial debut Forget America (2000) via Andres Veiel's RAF drama If Not Us, Who? (2011) up to Georg Maas’ Two Lives (2012) and Feo Aladag's Between Worlds (2013).Twice she was awarded the Deutscher Kamerapreis for her cinematography: for Shattered Glass (2002), the first feature film by Chris Kraus, and for Feo Aladag's When We Leave (2009). For boxing drama Elephant Heart (2002) with Daniel Brühl she was awarded the Bayerischer Filmpreis, followed in 2006 by the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Bella Block: Die Frau des Teppichlegers. Judith Kaufmann's more recent TV work includes Das letzte Stück Himmel (2007, director: Jo Baier), You Can Never Be Sure (2008, Nicole Weegmann), Das Ende einer Nacht (2012, Matti Geschonnek) and most recently Das Zeugenhaus (2014, Matti Geschonnek).

In 2012 she received the honorary award at the ceremony of the Deutscher Kamerapreis.

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David Holmes · Music

David Holmes, born 1969 in Belfast, published his first Album "This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats" in 1995, followed in 1997 by "Let's Get Killed" and in the subsequent years diverse others. He made his name as composer of film scores with his work for Steven Soderbergh's films Out of Sight (1998), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Ocean's 13 (2007) and Haywire (2011).

Further productions to which he contributed the musical score are, among others, Gregor Jordan's Army Go Home! (2001) and Harold Ramis' Analyse That 2 (2002). He is already connected to Oliver Hirschbiegel by the cooperation on his films Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) und Diana (2013).

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