"In the grace of late birth," a phrase from Chancellor Helmut Kohl, refers to Germans who are theoretically too young to share the collective guilt of Nazi crimes. It is used ironically in this "staged" documentary which has the effect of powerful fiction. The film concerns the events which took place in two mountain communities in the spring of 1986, when locals refused to participate in a public commemoration of victims of National Socialism. Citizens and officials alike protested that they themselves had not been guilty of anything-until one of the victims returned to the village. Director Hans-Räiger Minow meticulously prepares his interviews, working closely with the subjects and preparing from this a detailed script from which to gauge his highly crafted visuals and sound. In the cutting room, however, Minow has a strict hands-off policy toward the interviews. The results are compelling, giving In the Grace of Late Birth an almost painful intensity, as when the stubborn silence of the schoolmaster concerning the right-wing activities at his school is included uncut. "I enjoy power at the camera, just as others enjoy power...at the cutting table," Minow admits, recognizing that the reality of a documentary film is never that of life itself.