In the chaos of Germany 1945 defeat, a young man poses as a Nazi officer and begins a sadistic hunt.
Based on the horrific true story of Private Willi Herold, a teenage deserter from the German army whose sadism would eventually earn him the nickname of the Executioner of Emsland, The Captain picks up two weeks before the end of the war. A petrified Herold, fleeing military police, finds a captain’s uniform to wear and avoid execution.
Thus disguised, he soon rallies a ragtag band of brothers whose unquestioning acceptance of his command emboldens him. High on the terrifying charisma of his clothing, he invents a secret mission from the Führer and embarks on a brutal odyssey of torture and slaughter.
These shocking events are depicted in The Captain (released in 2017 in Germany as Der Hauptmann), a new film from critically acclaimed director Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Flight Plan, Red, Insurgent) and released by Signature Entertainment in cinemas on 21 September and on DVD and Digital HD 1 October 2018.
The Captain stars Max Hubacher, Milan Peschel and Frederick Lau, has a running time of 117 minutes and is rated 15. The movie will be released in black and white but a colour version is included on the DVD and Digital HD release.
History of War is proud to exclusively reveal the artwork/poster AND colour trailer:
The real Willi Herold was a corporal and winner of the Iron Cross for his service on the Italian front, but aged 19 – as the film depicts – he found a discarded Luftwaffe captain’s uniform and gathered around him a unit of war-weary, emotionally numbed soldiers who acted on his sadistic impulses.
They seized control of one of the Emslandlager camps for German army deserters and over eight days murdered more than 100 inmates, before he took his reign of terror to the surrounding countryside. He was eventually tried for war crimes and executed by guillotine in November 1946.
Signature Entertainment presents The Captain in Cinemas 21st September and DVD & Digital HD 1st October