An Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and a world wide success, Downfall looks at the last fortnight of Adolph Hitler's life; his inner circle -Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, Himmler, Speer; and the chaos of a country coming apart at the seams. Shifting between the bizarre atmosphere in Hitler's concrete bunker in April 1945 as the Allies advance on Berlin and the Third Reich crumbles, and with the hopeless war raging above as civilians and soldiers fight on the streets as the Soviet Army turns the city into a pile of rubble. Not so much a 'Hitler' movie. Downfall's a portrait of a totalitarian machine's spiritual and emotional collapse. Based on Two recent best sellers including 'Until The Final Hour', the personal account of Hirschbiegel's recreation of a war torn Berlin is massive and convincing, including meticulous design and stunning cinematography. The acting is exemplary, and Bruno Ganz who plays Hitler, makes the role startlingly real, creating a believable tyrant - crazy, murderous and seductive, yet oozing a strange kindness to some that makes his deadly hateful rages all the more chilling.Downfall puts the dark past in the wild present tense, and makes it resonate anew. An extraordinarily gripping and important work. Downfall succeeds in saying so much not only about the horrors of the 20th century, but about human nature as well.