Friday, April 17, 2009

Reel People: Haley Joel Osment is Helmuth Hübener

The film is Truth & Treason, filmed in Berlin, Germany by director Matt Whitaker who wrote and directed the documentary about Helmuth Hübener in 2002 called Truth & Conviction.

Helmuth Hübener

Helmuth was born on January 8, 1925 in Hamburg, Germany. Helmuth's family were members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and through school was well informed of Nazi politics, specifically after his Boy Scout group was compromised and became a different program called Hitler Youth.

In 1941, Hübener finished middle school and started an apprenticeship at the Hamburg Social Authority, during this time he was able to gain access to BBC radio, where he received an idea of the British perspective of WWII, Adolf Hitler, and Nazi Germany. This behavior was obviously forbidden.

Hübener, previously had some uncomfortable feelings with events going on, became very disconcerted upon hearing the British news source. In the Summer of 1941, Hübener began publishing anti-war leaflets. He would make copies of these and distribute them discreetly.

Hübener began involving a few of his friends in his listening of the BBC news and pamphlet creation/distribution. These friends were the similarly aged, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, Rudolf Wobbe, and later Gerhard Düwer . Karl-Heinz Schnibbe had joined the Hitler Youth against the opinion of his father at the age of 12 in 1936, but became disassociated with the group and was later expelled when he punched his leader in the face.

Schnibbe and Wobbe had a commitment to the cause, and the three boys made a pact that if any of them were caught they would take full responsibility of the work in order to protect the other two. They distributed the pamplets throughout Hamberg, and the gestapo began to try to investigate who wrote the pamphlets.

On February 5, 1942 Hübener was arrested by the Gestapo who was translating pamphlets one of the 60 pamphlets to French to inform prisoner's of war. At this time, the LDS church day's later excommunicated him and he was tortured for information by the gestapo for months.

After torture and investigation Hübener case was tried by Volksgerichtshof (The People's Court) on August 11, 1942 were he was convicted of conspiracy to commit high treason and furthering the enemies cause. A few months later October 27, 1942 Hübener was executed by being beheaded in a Berlin prison.

Helmuth Hübener was the youngest opponent of the the Third Reich to be sentences to death and executed.

Truth & Treason

In the film Haley Joel Osment will play this young and brave Third Reich opponent. The Oscar nominee will co-star in the film with the Swedish Oscar nominee Max von Sydow.

Jamie King will play the part of Karl-Heinz Schnibbe.

Will Haley Joel Osment prove he is still a serious actor with this challenging and serious role of Hübener. Could this portrayal even earn him critical attention and even an Oscar nomination/win for portraying this Real (Reel) Person?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, I'm glad for Haley. Finally he had a great adult role, because he's not only a brilliant actor, he also has charisma and presence to the camera...

Well, about the film. With a right direction and a right screenplay, maybe this could be a real thread for award season. AFter all, this is (On paper) a perfect "Oscarish" role:

-A hero/An adversary
-Nazi Germany
-Max Von Sydow (He's also in Shutter Island)

We need to see what happens next

RC said...

@ anon, I agree about the role, but I think my concern is the studio and crew are not an Oscar veteran crew.

Anonymous said...

RC, that's true about that, but a few times a little push for the critics and audience will help it. Marion Cotillard's oscar and amy Adams's nomination.

haley said...

It should be a great movie. I love Helmuth Hubener and Haley is a great actor!!!

Unknown said...

What happened to the movie? Haley Joel would've been great!