This film does a good job at showing how populism works, but I think it could have been even better had they structuered the story differently.
I think the movie would have benefitted even more from a limited view point, following mostly Maxi as she gets drawn into this organisation. Karl is charasmatic, he is young, intellegent and handsome and he uses all these things to convince people of his cause. And this is why it would have been great if we would find out that he is actually the one responsible for the bomb attack and his own murder at the end. This would have drawn attention to the fact how easily some could get manipulated. Show how these technics work first hand. Of course because of the sensitive matter at hand this is always problematic. But imagine rooting for him and Maxi throughout the movie just to find out he had been the bad guy all along together with Maxi whose whole world get shaddered again.
Also I think a lot of subtle things are easy to overlook while watching if you don't get aware of them. For example the song texts. The moment I knew that they were right winged I really listened to the text and read the lyric subtitles, but had I not know them I would have maybe ignored them. The music is extremly catchy and that is their purpose. It kind of brain washes you over time hearing these messages subconsiously.
Not to forget Karls friend from Wien (sorry I don't remember his name). He has a very distinct scar on his face and if you are familiar with Burschenchaften in Germany and Austria this is a instant red flag. It is so subtle and beautiful that if we hadn't known the political orientation of this group this would have already made some people suspicious.
In all I think the movie would have benefited from a later reveal of what Karl and his friends planed and did, but the film is still good at a represantation of how populism works.
I think the movie would have benefitted even more from a limited view point, following mostly Maxi as she gets drawn into this organisation. Karl is charasmatic, he is young, intellegent and handsome and he uses all these things to convince people of his cause. And this is why it would have been great if we would find out that he is actually the one responsible for the bomb attack and his own murder at the end. This would have drawn attention to the fact how easily some could get manipulated. Show how these technics work first hand. Of course because of the sensitive matter at hand this is always problematic. But imagine rooting for him and Maxi throughout the movie just to find out he had been the bad guy all along together with Maxi whose whole world get shaddered again.
Also I think a lot of subtle things are easy to overlook while watching if you don't get aware of them. For example the song texts. The moment I knew that they were right winged I really listened to the text and read the lyric subtitles, but had I not know them I would have maybe ignored them. The music is extremly catchy and that is their purpose. It kind of brain washes you over time hearing these messages subconsiously.
Not to forget Karls friend from Wien (sorry I don't remember his name). He has a very distinct scar on his face and if you are familiar with Burschenchaften in Germany and Austria this is a instant red flag. It is so subtle and beautiful that if we hadn't known the political orientation of this group this would have already made some people suspicious.
In all I think the movie would have benefited from a later reveal of what Karl and his friends planed and did, but the film is still good at a represantation of how populism works.