Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Sophie Scholl was one of the few female members of The White Rose, a resistance group that waged its war against Hitler with leaflets and graffiti at the University of Munich. Marc Rothemund’s Oscar-nominated picture re-imagines the final six days of her life–from the mission that got her arrested to her execution just six days later. Since much about Scholl’s pre-arrest life remains unknown, The Final Days is less a biopic than a meditation on the strength of her character in the face of murderous male authority (and in this regard it harks back to Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc). Rothemund took as much from history as he could, availing himself of Scholl’s interrogation records and reports from prison guards, who noted how bravely the student walked to her execution, as well as her prophetic last words.