| Blood & Gold | |
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| Directed by | Peter Thorwarth |
| Written by | Stefan Barth |
| Produced by |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
Blood & Gold is a 2023 film released in Germany on April 21, 2023, at the Fantasy Filmfest, and worldwide on May 26, 2023, on Netflix. [1]
In the spring of 1945, the Allied armies invade Nazi Germany as the end of World War II draws near. Heinrich (Robert Maaser), a decorated Wehrmacht veteran, is captured after his desertion attempt and hanged by a platoon of Waffen-SS led by a fanatical and somewhat deranged Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) von Starnfeld (Alexander Scheer). He is rescued by Elsa (Marie Hacke), who brings him to her farm home that she shares with her brother Paule, who has Down syndrome. Meanwhile, the SS arrive In the nearby village and begin to search looking for a large amount of hidden gold in a destroyed house previously occupied by a Jewish family.
Several SS soldiers with Oberscharführer Dörfler (Florian Schmidtke) in charge are sent to Elsa's farmhouse to plunder it for supplies. As Heinrich hides in the attic, the SS abuse Paule, and then attempt to rape Elsa. Heinrich intervenes, and in the ensuing melee the soldiers are killed by Heinrich and Elsa, but their Oberscharführer escapes. Heinrich, Elsa, and Paule leave the farmhouse and hide in the forest. However, Paule is troubled by distress to his beloved dairy cow from being left unmilked and goes back overnight to the farm, where he is captured by Dörfler returning there the following morning with a few soldiers and shooting Paule's cow dead for meat.
The SS bring Paule to the local church and abuse him in front of the villagers. He is marched to the top of the church steeple to be hanged. However, Paule pushes one SS soldier from the tower, grabs that man's MP40 and kills the second SS soldier. Paule then begins to fire on the SS in the plaza. Heinrich and Elsa arrive as Paule is killed by von Starnfeld with a sniper rifle. In the ensuing battle Elsa charges at von Starnfeld, firing her machine pistol until empty. Failing to kill von Starnfeld, Elsa crumbles to the ground in defeat, effectively surrendering herself to the SS. Heinrich and Dörfler meanwhile fight throughout the town, with both men wounding the other before Dörfler flees. Heinrich absconds to the house of the widow Irmgardner who aids him. Later that night Irmgardner welcomes the village priest into the house, where he reveals to Heinrich that he had witnessed four townspeople, including the mayor and the scheming Nazi sympathizer Sonja, steal the gold from the rightful owners during the events of Kristallnacht and burn down their home; the priest in turn stole the gold from them and hid it in his church. Heinrich plans to use the gold to draw the SS in and to free Elsa.
Elsa poisons the Obersturmbannführer with his cyanide capsule, and a firefight between the remainder of the SS platoon and Heinrich erupts after he throws a gold bar retrieved from the church into the SS headquarters. Heinrich collapses before he can reunite with Elsa. Dörfler transfuses blood to Heinrich in order to locate the gold in the church. However, the priest has already revealed the gold location to Sonja and her comrades, though the booby trap on the gold goes off, leaving the Nazi sympathizers dead and Sonja stunned. Dörfler arrives with Heinrich just after the explosion and murders the priest. Elsa and Irmgardner engage the SS, wherein Irmgardner and Dörfler are killed. The fight ends with the SS defeated, allowing Heinrich and Elsa to leave the village. Sonja shoots a soldier who hid to escape the carnage, and drives off unobserved with the stolen gold in a Volkswagen Kübelwagen; but as she's driving through the countryside, an American Sherman tank crew destroys her vehicle. The soldiers discover her lying mortally wounded and the gold bullions scattered all around the destroyed car; while at first they consider reporting in the discovery, their sergeant then tells them not to, so the group could split it among themselves instead. Later Heinrich and Elsa are seen arriving at the city of Hagen, where Heinrich has an emotional reunion with his daughter.
Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [2]
Notes
References
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