Erich Honecker OK. I just watched this film and, while it was an exciting action picture, it was horribly inaccurate. So bad in fact it was inexcusable. Had Hollywood turned out this crock, I could have forgiven them, but this was a German production and I expected a lot more from them.I lived in Berlin for most of the Eighties. Part of that time was spent in Kreutzberg, among the Anarchists. I knew many of them and even took part in some of their demos. I could write volumes on how these people think and act and, believe me, it was nothing like this movie depicted.In the movie, the characters were too clean and smart. Also they were all straight and the girls were pretty. And they were quite capable of launching a James Bond style breaking to a top security police fortress.In reality they were dirty, burnt-out looking, as often as not gay/lesbian and didn't mind flirting it. Many were drug users, came from broken homes, were sexually abused as kids, and had the organizing skills of Beavis and Butthead. If the girls were half way decent looking, they were probably prostituting themselves or working in strip shows to make a living. Nearly all of them were on welfare. Not to mention the frequent riots and vandalism that came with the lifestyle. Certainly nothing like the happy-go-lucky characters the movie depicts.I never ever heard of any Anarchists moving out and becoming Yuppies. Not even in the Nineties. Usually they just stayed in place until they were forced out of their squats and into concrete block neighborhoods in East Berlin.Also the police are not that stupid. Nobody ever broke into Tempelhof and stole the riot trucks or blew up the archives. Get real! This stuff never happened and should not be depicted as though it did. The worst part of it for me is that back then, the media depicted the Anarchists as the lowest trash who should be locked up immediately or disposed of by any means necessary. Now they are cashing in on them by making action movies with sexy Anarchist good guys.It's as if, 10 years from now, Hollywood made an action movie featuring Osama Bin Laden and his Mujahadeen as the good guys and put Michelle Yeoh in as the female lead. That bad! Enjoy this movie but History it ain't!

cheesie25 This is a touching movie about a group of young, idealist anarchists who lose their beliefs and their friendships and become what they never expected. In being a slightly older than young idealist/activist myself I found this film very moving. But I think it can appeal to anyone who has had close friendships, only to see them pulled apart by approaching adulthood, social responsibilities, or changes in values. The film actually portrays these young punks in a convincing way unlike many other movies I've seen in which underground or subversive groups are shown in the most basest of stereotypes. The characters' background story or former look is not the focus though, so it does rush through that time rather quickly. The main draw in the film is the amazing job it does showing all of the reasons for the group's disbanding. You sympathize with each of the characters and can understand each of their reasons for choosing their current lifestyles. The plot is solid, the characters engaging, and the dialogue can be quite funny. This is the kind of film that has you laughing, crying and cheering all in a span of 2 hrs. Highly recommended.

redagent7 This was quite a good movie. Perhaps I'm partial for German films, but this was even better because it wasn't about typical German film themes like racial tolerance, finding a lost love from the East-West separation, etc. The film told the story of a five anarchists who set a bomb in a government building in Berlin. The bomb's timer "stopped" and when tampered with 10 or so years later, begins where it left off. Suddenly it blows up the now-abandoned building and these five anarchists who are now older and more conservative must reunite and find a way to once again "smash the system" in order not to get caught. The film concentrated more on plot and less on cinemetography. There were a few nice cinemagraphic scenes however, and at the end, proved to be a heart-warming film. However, the movie was completely unrealistic and didn't touch on the differences of political ideologies as much as the back cover said it would. I think it would have been better if the characters were struggling to identify with each others' new political ideologies while having to work together to realisitically save themselves from their younger anarchistic days.

slimschaffer Movies about the german history are very hard to find. "Was tun wenn's brennt?" shows in an excellent way that moments of the german history worth being filmed. Seeing this movie about friends and getting out of a capitalistic system is a great pleasure because of its great acting, directing and camera work.Director Georg Schnitzler gets cleverly around many stereotypes and shows in his deep characterization his figures as dreamers on their search for happiness. After 13 years they have to come together to reunite their former group and beware themselves of being arrested. That's the beginning of a wonderful written script. The story designs a complex world. Director Schnitzler brings this world perfectly in the reality we know.The great team of actors presents us after a long time real characters which you can easily identify yourself with and which you really like. On their search for happiness they finally find it here in a simple formula of friendship: "Real friends help each other consoling about the nastily of the capitalism." Was tun wenn's brennt? Brennen lassen! (What to do when it's burning? Let it burn!)10/10