---
title: "The Baader Meinhof Complex"
year: 2008
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-baader-meinhof-complex"
fi1m_id: "the-baader-meinhof-complex"
imdb_id: "tt0765432"
tmdb_id: 6968
wikidata_id: "Q166696"
fi1m_score: 65
critics_score: 58
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-10-01T20:32:05.024605+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T20:32:58.021065+00:00"
region: "EC"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Directed by Uli Edel · 2h 29m · Action, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller

## Identity

The Baader Meinhof Complex

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-baader-meinhof-complex
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-baader-meinhof-complex
- **IMDb ID:** tt0765432
- **TMDB ID:** 6968
- **Wikidata ID:** Q166696
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765432/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/6968, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q166696

**Fi1m score: 65** · Critics 58 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* Ten years of West German terror at the speed of a getaway, with time for the sunglasses but not the ideas

> Uli Edel’s account of the Red Army Faction is cast to the hilt and reconstructed down to the ashtrays, and it never once slows down. Thrilling for an hour, exhausting after that, and the ideas get lost under the gunfire.

## Synopsis

West Germany, 1967. Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), a columnist with two small daughters and a marriage going sour, watches police beat demonstrators outside a reception for the Shah of Iran in West Berlin, and a student is shot dead. Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) set fire to a Frankfurt department store and are tried for it, defended by the lawyer Horst Mahler (Simon Licht). Meinhof writes in their support, then meets them, and finds she admires them more than she admires herself. In 1970 she agrees to help Baader walk out of a supervised visit to a library. When the plan goes wrong she goes out of the window with the rest of them, and a journalist becomes a fugitive. Bruno Ganz plays Horst Herold, the policeman who sets out to understand them.

## Review

Uli Edel and the producer Bernd Eichinger have taken Stefan Aust’s book on the Red Army Faction and tried to put the whole of it on screen: ten years, three generations of the group, the bombings, the arrests, the prison, the trial. It runs 149 minutes and there is not a slow one in it. That is the film’s chief quality and its chief fault. It is superbly acted and it never gives anyone, on screen or on the sofa, time to think.

The first hour is the strong part. Rainer Klausmann puts his camera inside the crowd at the 1967 demonstration against the Shah, so that when the police wade in with batons we see it at shoulder height, between heads, and cannot tell which way to run. We were properly frightened, and we knew how the scene ended. It is the one sequence in which the film shows us, rather than tells us, why these particular young people decided the state was the enemy. Bernd Lepel’s late-sixties Germany is brown and orange and full of ashtrays, and the newspaper office, the Frankfurt flats and the Berlin streets are built with the sort of care that makes you forget they were built.

Then there is the cast. Martina Gedeck plays Meinhof as a woman who talks herself into things, a writer more at home describing the barricade than standing on it, and the film’s best scenes are the ones in which she watches Baader and Ensslin and wishes she were braver. Moritz Bleibtreu’s Baader is a loudmouth in sunglasses who likes fast cars more than Marx and never pretends otherwise; Bleibtreu makes him funny, vain and restless, and lets us see how little is underneath. Johanna Wokalek is the quiet, frightening one. Her Ensslin leaves her baby and does not look back, and Wokalek plays the certainty without a flicker. Birgit Missal dresses them beautifully, leather and short skirts and fur collars, and the film knows exactly how good they look. That is an honest observation about why people followed them, and it is also a problem the film never quite faces.

Bruno Ganz, as Horst Herold, is the film’s adult. He sits in offices with Heino Ferch as his assistant and says, calmly, that you cannot beat these people without understanding what made them, and Ganz delivers it as plain sense rather than a sermon. His scenes are short and few. We wanted more of him, because he is the only character asking the question the film was presumably made to answer.

The second half is where it goes wrong. Alexander Berner cuts the years of bombings and arrests as a run of short scenes with dates stamped on them, and somewhere after the ninety-minute mark we realised we had lost track of who the new faces were. Nadja Uhl’s Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Daniel Lommatzsch’s Christian Klar arrive as the second generation and the film has no time to tell us anything about them except that they shoot people. By the end we were tired and, more worryingly, a little numb, and the film seemed to take the numbness as a response.

The script by Eichinger and Edel is scrupulous about what happened and nearly silent about why. The group’s politics come out as slogans shouted across tables, which may well be accurate, but a film can choose to stop and listen and this one keeps driving. The East, the Wall a few streets away and what was being done on the other side of it, barely comes up. Some critics think the film glamorises its subjects. We do not: it shows them as attractive and then shows them as brutal and deluded. What it does not do is choose a place to stand and look at either.

Worth an evening for the cast and the first hour, and for anyone who knows the history and wants to see it staged with this much conviction. If you do not know it, keep a pencil handy, because the film will not stop to tell you who anyone is. It carries an 18 certificate and earns every minute of it.

*Fi1m score 65, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics find the film absorbing as history. The praise clusters on the cast: Martina Gedeck’s finely graded Ulrike Meinhof is singled out repeatedly, Johanna Wokalek’s Gudrun Ensslin and Moritz Bleibtreu’s narcissistic, self-deluding Baader almost as often. Several reviews also credit the editing and cinematography with conveying the fear and upheaval of the period, and the better-disposed critics admire the film’s refusal to hand down easy judgements on the RAF.

The reservations cluster on crowding and politics. Even admirers concede the story is overstuffed, with key transformations left unexplained; the harsher reviews call it incoherent, half-told or simply dull, the gunfire leaving no room to think. The New Yorker faults the narrowness of its perspective and the absence of the Cold War context, while the Evening Standard warns it edges towards glamorising terrorism. The spread is wide, from warm to dismissive, and the dissent comes largely from the American press on the film’s later release.

## Straight answers

**Is The Baader Meinhof Complex worth watching?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* is worth an evening for its cast and its first hour, and we scored it 65. Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu and Johanna Wokalek are superb, and the 1967 demonstration is staged with real force, but the second half is a run of dated scenes that left us tired and numb. It suits viewers who already know the history; newcomers will struggle to keep up.

**How long is The Baader Meinhof Complex, and what is it rated?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* runs 2h 29m. It is an action and crime film.

**Where can I watch The Baader Meinhof Complex in Ecuador?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 17 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Baader Meinhof Complex, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* carries an 18 certificate and earns it, with police beatings, a department store fire, bombings and shootings running across its 149 minutes. The violence is frequent rather than lingering, but the second half becomes a sustained account of people being killed, and the film shows the group as brutal as well as glamorous. It is not for children or younger teenagers.

**How does The Baader Meinhof Complex compare to The Battle of Algiers?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* is faster, flashier and far more star-driven than [*The Battle of Algiers*](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers), and the earlier film is the better of the two. Pontecorvo's documentary style makes his violence feel close and his argument lucid, where Edel's film keeps driving and never stops to think. Choose the German film for its performances and period detail, the Algerian one for an account of insurgency that actually understands it.

**Is The Baader Meinhof Complex based on a true story or a book?**

*The Baader Meinhof Complex* is based on Stefan Aust's book about the Red Army Faction and dramatises the real events of West Germany's terrorist decade, from the 1967 Shah demonstration onward. The film is scrupulous about what happened and nearly silent about why, so a working knowledge of the history helps considerably. Without it, the parade of new faces in the second half is hard to follow.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): Jones finds the story absorbingly told and the film gripping. He particularly praises its portrayal of the volatile Andreas Baader and disillusioned Ulrike Meinhof. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-21vjxd/the-baader-meinhof-complex/)
- **Empire**, Kim Newman (75/100, inferred): Newman calls it fascinating history and a very good, demanding film, though its lack of easy answers may frustrate some viewers. He praises Martina Gedeck’s performance and the film’s vivid cast, while noting its commitment to historical complexity over comforting explanations. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/baader-meinhof-complex-review/)
- **The Guardian**, Philip French (75/100, inferred): French finds the film a powerful, clear-eyed account of the RAF and the forces surrounding its rise. He praises its factual exposition and refusal to make easy judgments. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/16/the-baader-meinhof-complex-review)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Bonnie J. Gordon (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a compelling, relevant character study, though some key character transformations remain unexplained. She praises its focused portrayal of the women and the editing and cinematography that convey the period’s fear and upheaval. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/baader-meinhof-complex-125215/)
- **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film relevant, thought-provoking and highly watchable, while noting that it approaches the edge of glamorising terrorism. They particularly praise Martina Gedeck’s finely graded performance as Ulrike Meinhof. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/terror-and-glamour-in-the-baader-meinhof-complex-7411075.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Joseph Jon Lanthier (2.5/4): The critic finds the film politically muddled and ultimately disinteresting. He praises Edel’s ability to make the action sequences tense, despite the weak emotional stakes. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-baader-meinhof-complex/)
- **Time Out**, Wally Hammond (3/5): The critic finds the film both fascinating and frustrating. The review singles out its portrait of the formation of the group as compelling but uneven. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-baader-meinhof-complex-1)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (50/100, inferred): Turan finds the film a fascinating but pulp-styled treatment of a serious subject, leaving viewers free to decide how seriously to take it. He praises the strong German cast and the film’s vivid capture of the era’s revolutionary fervor. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-aug-28-et-complex28-story.html)
- **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (35/100, inferred): Brody finds the film’s political perspective compelling to contemporary audiences but ultimately too narrow and selective. He faults its omission of the Cold War context, especially East Germany’s role and the Berlin Wall. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-baader-meinhof-complex-ins-and-outs)
- **Variety**, Boyd van Hoeij (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film overstuffed and largely humdrum, with little exploration of its characters or the RAF’s ideology. Johanna Wokalek’s vivid performance as Gudrun Ensslin is singled out as the film’s strongest asset. [Read](https://variety.com/2008/film/awards/the-baader-meinhof-complex-2-1200470286/)
- **IndieWire**, robbiefreeling (25/100, inferred): The critic finds the film dull and unimaginative despite the importance of its subject. They fault its relentless gunfire and chronology for sacrificing narrative cohesion and thoughtful pauses. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general/world-gone-wrong-the-baader-meinhof-complex-225970/)
- **Eye for Film**, Jeff Robson (65/100, inferred): Robson finds the film gripping and powerful at its best, but says its crowded story ultimately becomes incoherent and feels only half-told. He particularly praises the excellent performances and singles out Moritz Bleibtreu’s portrayal of Baader’s narcissism and self-delusion. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-baader-meinhof-complex-film-review-by-jeff-robson)

## Details

- **Director:** Uli Edel
- **Director:** Uli Edel
- **Screenplay:** Uli Edel, Bernd Eichinger
- **Novel:** Stefan Aust
- **Cinematography:** Rainer Klausmann
- **Editor:** Alexander Berner
- **Music:** Peter Hinderthür, Florian Tessloff
- **Production design:** Bernd Lepel
- **Costume design:** Birgit Missal
- **Producer:** Bernd Eichinger
- **Cast:** Martina Gedeck as Ulrike Meinhof; Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader; Johanna Wokalek as Gudrun Ensslin; Nadja Uhl as Brigitte Mohnhaupt; Stipe Erceg as Holger Meins; Niels Bruno Schmidt as Jan Karl Raspe; Vinzenz Kiefer as Peter-Jürgen Boock; Simon Licht as Horst Mahler
- **Runtime:** 2h 29m
- **First release (Germany):** 16 September 2008
- **Genres:** Action, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
- **Budget:** $20 million
- **Box office:** $27 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IVKAAsqcrI

## Where to watch in Ecuador

Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check.

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, CH, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, NO, NZ, PL, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2009: Best International Feature Film (nominated)
- European Film Academy Prix d'Excellence 2009: European Film Academy Prix d'Excellence (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actor 2009: European Film Award for Best Actor (nominated)
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2009: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated)
- International Submission to the Academy Awards 2009: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Carlos* (2010): Assayas gives the same era’s other celebrity terrorist five hours and far more thought.
- *Marianne and Juliane* (1981): Von Trotta’s film about the Ensslin sisters does with two women what this does with twenty.
- *Good Morning, Night* (2003): Bellocchio locks the Moro kidnapping in one flat and finds the politics in the silences.
- *The Battle of Algiers* (1966), Fi1m 93: Still the film every account of urban insurgency is measured against, and still winning. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers.md)
- *United Red Army* (2007): Wakamatsu’s account of Japan’s equivalent group is slower, colder and far more frightening.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-baader-meinhof-complex