The kidnapping of prominent ex-Nazi and Mercedes-Benz executive Hans-Martin Schleyer, the hijacking and rescue of a Lufthansa airliner, the suspicious deaths of the leaders of the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany's highest security prison, and the threat of government crackdowns against left-wing intellectuals during the Fall of 1977 are the political background to this important collective work. Many politically concerned filmmakers, including Kluge, Fassbinder and Schlöndorff, resolved to make a film, necessarily without government subsidy, exploring many of the ramifications of the events excluded from government- and right-wing-controlled news coverage... They synthesize newsreels from Germany's Nazi past...popular illustrations, mock 1920s agit-prop films, and fictional sketches reflecting the pervasive mood of paranoia with documentary footage from Schleyer's and the terrorists' funerals to create a collage unified by many subtle thematic and visual echoes. Their purpose is not to provide a propagandistic political analysis, but to open striking historical as well as emotional perspectives on...an exceptionally difficult national crisis. Stuart Liebman