Netflix has released the first photos from All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the classic bestselling novel by Erich Maria Remarque and directed by Edward Berger (Deutschland 83). The 2022 film marks the first time a German director has helmed an adaptation of Remarque’s novel, and Berger spoke with Netflix Queue about being involved in the project.
“Being born and growing up in Germany, I have always had the sense that one feeling will be with us for our whole lifetimes: the feeling of being heir to two wars. My children still feel that today,” stated director/co-writer Berger. “It was important to me to take on the German perspective. Our view of war is marked by grief and shame, sorrow and death, destruction and guilt. I felt that making our history, background, and attitude towards war the driving force behind the movie was a huge and fascinating challenge. I wanted to make a movie that felt like, in order to make it, you would’ve had to have grown up in Germany.”
Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanovic, Adrian Grünewald, Thibault De Montalembert, Daniel Brühl, and Devid Striesow star. Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell adapted the book for the film, and Berger, Malte Grunert, and Daniel Dreifuss produced.
The Plot: “All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches.”
