A face with a moustache, looking older than its age, smiling in a forced way. A man pats the uniform-clad boys on the cheek. The boys are barely fifteen.
Those familiar with WW2 history might recognize the scene, one of the last photographs ever taken of Hitler, awarding his last defenders with medals in the garden of the Reich Chancellery – a group of little boys, aged 10 to 15. During the last weeks of fighting, old men and little boys were just as good for the Germans to send into human-grinder of war.
These nightmarish weeks, the end of childhood and the collapse of ideals are the subject of Bernhard Wicki‘s West German film The Bridge. At first it’s everyday life under wartime, with shadows no more than flickering in the background. The boys’ faith in everything they’ve been taught has not yet been shattered. Even bombs are mainly subjects for jokes, they might at best hit the English class so that the lesson would be called off.
As the war rushes closer and closer, the sacrifice of the boys will also be required. Repeatedly, someone yells: go back to kindergarten. The further the film proceeds, the deeper becomes the viewer’s wish that the boys would heed the advice. (Niilo Rantala)
Language: German, English, subtitles: Finnish and Swedish