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Certification
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Sex & Nudity
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- Except for the scene where his sister is undressing for the bath, there isn't any nudity in the film. Surely a 13-year-old boy going to the swimming baths after discovering that his beloved Jewish Grandmother has hanged herself because of growing persecution by the Nazis isn't nudity. He's in shock the whole rest of the film, hardly really aware of where he is.
Violence & Gore
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- Apart from Hannes breaking the china tea-set in a moment of adolescent stroppiness, there is some just some rough playing around amongst Hannes' playmates, surely common to all early teenaged boys, but the only really dangerous moment is where the Asthmatic boy is made to run up the football field and back by the Hitler youth leader, and collapses halfway back, which is certainly cruel, but not exactly openly violent. One of the other boys keeps grabbing his friend in a headlock, but he isn't hurt and doesn't seem to mind him horsing around. Young boys, just like kittens and puppies and bear-cubs, always crave physical contact with each other.
Profanity
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- Although the arguments with his useless father are mildly profane, and the HitlerJugend leader shows off a bit with swearwords to impress his followers, most of the shocking language is the open anti-semitism, since Hannes seems to keep forgetting that his Grandmother is Jewish, which is later going to seal his own fate, no matter how fond he is of his HJ uniform. He is innocently trying to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds as well, but he doesn't yet realize that it can't be done. He's at the stage of adolescence where he hasn't yet had to make any irrevocable choices, but like all of us, he will have to soon.
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
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- Although a number of the characters smoke a bit (but not Hannes, who is a"good boy") only the grown-ups seem to drink, and that mainly socially. I don't remember any drugs being consumed. Perhaps if Hermann Goering had been a character, that would have been different.
Frightening & Intense Scenes
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- The central episode of the film is when Hannes, the mostly sweet thirteen-year-old protagonist, takes a cake his mother has baked over to his beloved Oma (Grandma) and finds her hanging by her neck in her lovely and still orderly flat, which shocks him to the core, and us too. The only thing he ever cuts with his new HJ dagger is the cake he brings, to sample a piece. Then he explores a bit and finds Grandma hanging from a rope. He will never forget it, and neither will we. I think all viewers hope he leaves Germany before the "Final Solution" affects him and his sister and mother as well. Gezundheit Hannes, God bless you, and keep you safe.
