Downfall

The Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee Downfall takes place in Berlin during the final days of Hitler's Third Reich, long after any hope of victory has faded and the fighting has devolved into a bleak burlesque of combat. Children brainwashed by Hitler Youth are pressed into service with little training and receive medals for bravery, along with the occasional pinch on the cheek from their Führer. A general convicted of retreating and sentenced to be shot is abruptly promoted to commander of the Berlin defense after being told Hitler likes his account of his actions. (Understandably, he claims he'd have preferred the bullet in the brain.) S.S. officers and Hitler's top advisors must choose between ending their lives with their own pistols or facing a day of reckoning as war criminals.