Forgive Us Our Trespasses (I) (2022) User Reviews

Empathy (and the lack therof)

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 19 February 2022]

During or even before the second world war, the Nazi regime targeted people it deemed lesser. With Aryans allegedly and supposedly being superior to others (be it religious beliefs, skin color or simply race). One group that gets almost forgotten, are the physically disabled. Like the protagonist in this short movie.

A short movie that is very well done and that shows how cruel and mad people got back then. Tension filled and really tight, I would not be surprised if this wins (or has won by the time you read this) awards. Short and while maybe not so sweet (subject matter), this checks all the "right" boxes. Nothing to forgive here ...

Not bad for a short

[btreakle · 7/10 · 3 March 2022]

Was not bad for a short about Nazi Germany and the extermination of people with disabilities. Most people may not realize this actually happened un Adolf Hitler.

Why?

[brsger · 5/10 · 9 January 2024]

This is a nice short film. No doubt about. Solid acting from Talbot, the child isn't given much to work with, but it's ok. Let's just not talk about the "officer". Overacted and satirical. But that was to be expected.

From a technical standpoint: Very nice. Professional camerawork, ambient lighting and solid sound design.

But why is this on Netflix?

It has big team backing it (compared to other shorts), ok. But that's not a reason to put in on Netflix whereas lots of better shorts are for free on YouTube. Why this one in particular?

Then again, why was this topic chosen? Weird decision to have the characters speak English, clichéd class room scene, which exists in like 3 other movies (for example the exceptional 'Napola') and the Officer is a joke.

Good for a short, overall. But then again, this probably isn't your usual 3k $ student project.

Why?

[boussourir-87845 · 21 February 2022]

It's not a bad effort for a short movie.

But seriously if you are going to denounce something the nazis did, do it properly.

Mostly everything in this isn't historical. The t4 operation happened before and early in the war as stated by the short movie, everything is happening in Germany or one of the germanic annexed territories.

Then why is there a jew hiding in a barn?

Why is there talk of resistance?

Why are some SS guys coming in using a halftrack?

Why are the SS even there since they didn't supervise T4?

Why is there indiscriminate shooting?

Why does the short movie say that the T4 aktion is fading from collective memory when it clearly isn't?

Maybe it's because the people who wrote this didn't knew about it and didn't bother too much to learn about it before writing their script.

You don't need to make up stuff with nazi Germany, reality was worst than any made up fiction.

Bravo Netflix, more than just a time filler.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 17 February 2022]

Flicking through Netflix can produce mixed results, now and then you stumble across a gem, something that's a little bit different, but rewarding.

Forgive us our trespasses is very unusual, a short on Netflix, and not a film with a conventional beginning, middle and end, but just a snapshot of the life of one young boy, during the rise of The Nazis.

Beautifully presented, well acted, but an insightful look at how life was for people living with disabilities during that horrific time.

Thought provoking. 9/10.

So wrong

[facebook-50467 · 1/10 · 21 February 2022]

First off, there are some sentences in the end of the short movie and they are just not correct. It is important to have a good understanding of history, so I am going to correct those first.

"In 1939 Hitler implemented Aktion T4, which led to the murder of 300,000 disabled people, while sterilizing an additional 400,000. This secret program developed the gas chamber technology used in concentration camps during WWII.

This history of disabled lives has slowly been forgotten."

1. "Aktion T4" is a wording that was made up after the war. The Nazis were mostly referring to this simply as "Aktion" and it is known today in Germany by "Euthanasie" (euthanasia). In Germany the word "Euthanasie" today only refers to the program of the Nazis, its original meaning is given in the dictionary, but there is a remark explaining this.

The sterilization of 400,000 people was a public process, actually governed by laws. It started before the "Aktion", which was secret. Other countries that sterilized people with certain types of disabilities at the time were Switzerland, Denmark and Canada. Some of them started doing this before the Nazis. So, "Aktion" and sterilization are actually very different in character.

2. Gas chambers were not used in concentration camps. They were used in extermination camps. Very big difference and absolutely necessary to make. Without it, it is not possible to understand how these mass-murders were organized.

3. Claiming that the history of disabled lives has slowly been forgotten is just a statement to promote self-importance. On the contrary, while the remembrance was mainly focused on Jews in the decades after WWII, more and more groups have found recognition as victims of Nazi crimes in later years and are remembered not only in today's memorial services, but also as part of the curriculum in public schools.

For the content of the movie: Maybe people are less educated about history today or generally more gullible, but lately there have been a lot of supposed "period pieces" that have nothing period to them. These are productions that put 21st century people in costumes and settings of a different time, then take some naïve idea about that time to tell a story that they could just as well have told in the 21st century or in a fantasy setting. The "period" seems to serve artistic and marketing purposes and there is no actual effort to really portray the supposed period at all.

From the first pictures in this short movie, I had the feeling it was going to be like this. And it was. Just search: "German classroom 1939" or 1940. Make sure, you are actually looking at a German class room of that time. Pay attention to the seating order and the postures. Do you see any mixed-gender classes or a woman teaching boys? Do you see anyone, boy or girl with hair covering most of their forehead? No? That is because it did not exist. If you happen to see a picture of a primary school, where coeducation existed, you might notice that the boys all sit in the middle. The girls sit around them.

Now, just by doing half an hour google search, you personally have the knowledge to improve the first scene of the movie. Just get everybody to get the hair out of their face as much as possible, make them sit straight and sit the girls at the side and the boys in center. If you want to save money, then you don't paint the whole wall with red and swastika, but hang a flag somewhere instead. Now, you even saved money, while improving the movie. Could a producer show us more clearly that they did not do any research than by spending money on things that could have been done better with less money spent?

So, the scenes are all completely unrealistic, not only in details but as a whole. So is the story. Basically, the story is that some soldiers pull up to the house of a teacher and her son. The son, who is missing a limb of one arm, is running away. He stops at a barn and there is a woman hidden and it is actually pretty confusing what that has to do with anything, but it is used plot-wise to make the boy show himself again to the soldiers and keep running. Then he is followed by one of the three soldiers, their officer. They fight, he kills the officer with the officer's pistol and then puts on the officer's coat and keeps on marching away.

I don't get the whole point of the story. Why should any of this have happened? The idea of wanting to kill a young boy for missing a limb is completely absurd.

Here is an idea for the producers: If you want to make a movie again about something that actually happened, consult with experts and then do that. Don't make something and pretend it has anything to do with things that actually happened.

One star for misinforming the public and making me write this review trying to stop that from being successful.

I just hope that this kind of movie stops being made. You can't learn from the past, if you think it is different than it was.

Amazing Short.

[yusufpiskin · 8/10 · 17 February 2022]

A very good short film that can make the audience empathize with the main character in 13 minutes.

I hope Netflix shows the success it has shown in festivals in the field of short films as well.

Manipulative and historically inaccurate

[CriticalShock · 1/10 · 19 February 2022]

Aktion T4 was a real thing, but it was carried out in secrecy by doctors performing involuntary euthanasia, this short portrays it as if Hitler ordered the army to hunt down their own non-Jew German citizens the same way the SS hunted Jews. If such a thing had really happened, the Nazis would have lost all their popular support. The soldiers are portrayed as blood thirsty lunatics, immediately killing the boy's mother because she didn't open the door within 3 seconds. As if the emotional manipulation and historical inaccuracies weren't enough the ending is an insult to the viewers' intelligence, because we're supposed to believe a disabled boy can overpower and kill a grown up armed soldier (and when he pushes his corpse aside with a smile is just the icing on the cake, lol). It's a shame this short is so bad, because this is a really interesting and little known part of German history.

This is a short film?!

[sheast · 8/10 · 27 February 2022]

Soooo, when I started watching I thought this was a full length movie. When the credits rolled at 14 minutes I was like...wait a minute...LOL! I was just getting into it. Regardless, I was moved by this short and the poignant depiction of the fear, insanity, and brutality of Nazis. The beliefs and propaganda that eclipse so many, even the most vulnerable.

Important topic but badly researched

[meringuemitschlag · 2/10 · 24 December 2022]

Well. As important as the topic of the Nazi genocide against people w disabilities is - you make a movie, do some research. The uniforms are wrong. The whole setup is wrong (SS does not come with tanks and for sure not within Germany). They come with a car, they would come to the school rather maybe, they will be pseudo-nice and "take the kid to an appointment at a clinic" etc - they would then later kill the kids at other facilities. I understand that this is fictionalized but it does not serve the topic to show the sinister and cold actions of the SS and the Nazis by showing them as if they were unorganized brutal idiots. We have to understand that they had smart and devious ways. Well. Just watch man in the high castle, gives you more insight into the psychology of evil.

A Brilliant Short That Should Be a Feature or Series

[syd9907 · 10/10 · 18 February 2022]

I watched "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" and it packs a powerful punch in a short period of time. "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" is brilliant filmmaking in a compact little jewel box. It advocates for those with limb differences being very capable of living just as full of a life as anyone else, balanced against a shameful period in 20th century history. 300,000 people with disabilities were murdered under the Nazi regime (many of which were children) and another 400,000 were forcibly sterilized.

And the disabled are still treated like disposable marginalized members of our society. I know firsthand with caring for my severely disabled cousin. With the roadblocks, red-tape, potholes, policies, rules, regulations and our politicians forgetting that the disabled exists until they need votes, they are truly the forgotten people and sometimes dealing with the government insanity, I almost think the powers-that-be would be more than happy for the disabled to just disappear, never to be heard of again. Why, because we live in a society that sees having a disability as a weakness.

Thank you Netflix for this thought-provoking film, because it's rare that the disabled are spotlighted and not just seen as a sidekick, burden or the brunt of a joke.

This isn't how you do it.

[W011y4m5 · 2/10 · 16 December 2022]

It's always a shame when a fascinating premise is wasted via shoddy execution & this underdeveloped short film does exactly that; squandering the original concept it had (depicting a little known part of recent history which relevantly reinforces the importance of valuing human life in modern society, lensing the T4 program of Nazi Germany through the perspective of a disabled infant) by choosing to blatantly misrepresent genuine events for the sake of filming what is essentially a random 6 minute chase sequence - that does little to convey the meaning it's attempting to imbue within the narrative. Hence, despite the commendable intentions, the final product does essentially do a disservice to the subject matter it's trying to address & the tale it's endeavouring to tell, since it seems to possess little interest in actually indulging in anything, other than gratuitous violence - taking what could've been a profoundly moving & tragic exploration of this period & using it as an excuse to showcase a filmmaker's shallow ability to visually realise inconsequential action on screen.

Good grief, are you serious?

[rich-43945 · 10/10 · 28 January 2023]

To those who critize (and have likely never produced a movie) film is a canvas... from the ceiling Michelangelo painted on to the canvases painted by Renoir and Cezanne, there is necessarily a difference. This short was not intended as a documentary and had to be shot on a budget, so yes, you don't see period war machines and uniforms. So what?

However, did you take note of shot composition, lighting, an engaging script, the acting... all inside of a 14 minute window? You did not. Not surprising.

And so, to the Team behind this powerful and evocative short: "Bravo". Keep going, despite the cricizers and how difficult this art form and business is.

remind

[Kirpianuscus · 19 July 2022]

Fair and precise remind of a less familiar aspect of Nazi Germany policy about its citizens.

A young woman, teacher. Her son, disabled, is one of her students. One day, the menace against boy. And his survive .

At first sight, holes and a too short / concentred story. But the powerful, impressive and pleasant work of young Knox Gibson is the great gift of this short film about childhood in a different light.

This is not what really happened...

[Erik_Surewaard · 5/10 · 14 July 2023]

There are quite some things that don't make sense.

First of all, "Aktion T4" targetted handicapped people - mainly children - with a hereditary physical or mental disability. It is cases like "Down Syndrome", missing parts of the brain (i.e. Microencephaly), brain fluid disorders (hydroencephaly)... A case whereby a child misses part of his arm doesn't fit this category. If that would be the case, how then would they have to deal with soldiers that lost an arm or leg in the war effort?!

Further, they would not send an armoured vehicle for a house visit. And this armoured vehicle is from the Wehrmacht, whilst it is SS people driving it. That doesn't really make sense either: the vehicle should have license plates starting with SS instead of WH (Wehrmacht).

The struggle at the end wouldn't make sense either. If the SS would be there to pick up the kid, he wouldn't kill the kid. He would arrest the kid...

And I doubt that an officer with the rank of "Hauptsturmführer" - around the level of a captain - would be sent including several troopers. This for a basic task of arresting a child. And the ones running would be the troopers, not the captain.

So many things are incorrect in my opinion. The evil and inhumane euthanasia program of the germans should have been portrayed in another way: this where we would have seen the real evil character of the program.

Overall, I therefore can not get further than a score of 5.1 for this short. This because of the misrepresentation of many facts. The good acting and cinematography should have been used in a way more realistic fashion.

This short deserves recognition

[SylvestroMars · 8/10 · 20 February 2022]

This captured a moment of time in history that we should forever remember. When we hear about WW2, we think about Hitler, concentration camps, millions of jews murdered in masses, etc. The suffering of the disabled are equally important and should not be swept under the rug. Their suffering should not be invalidated. Any group discriminated against reside in the same category of suffering of war.

This short was well directed, the actors were excellent, and the cinematography was smoothly done. The story was interesting and compellingly. We need more promotions for films like this. Films with educational value.

Short and memorable

[khemass · 8/10 · 13 February 2024]

The short film shows us the suffering of the disabled because the Nazi viewed them as being garbage that waste money and resources. I didn't know before that the disabled German adults and children had suffered the persecution, too. The film is well done with beautiful cinematography, good performance, great location and setting and costume, and the story was told in a way that kept our interest all the way through, routing for the boy to survive. It is perfectly titled, if we think about how human trespassed against each other so much at that time in the history. Heaven must have wept bitterly back then. I hope similar thing won't return in another form to our present time.

Cruel event of WW2

[Luigi Di Pilla · 8/10 · 6 March 2022]

Even if it's a short movie give this a chance.

Cause it's based on true events from Nazi time during the Second World War. The boy played his role really well and the idea of this work makes wondering more about all these cruelties.

God bless all the children who must die. 8/10.

blink and you will miss it

[watcher2019 · 8/10 · 24 February 2022]

I didnt realise this was a short. Should have read the specs. Not that original. Must have happened many times. Its a fast start adn action happens almsot straight away.