The year is 1936 in the Germany of Adolf Hitler and the '36 Olympics is to be held in Berlin. Germany's best high jumper is the Jewish Gretel Bergmann which creates a problem for the Nazi sports establishment. If they field a Jew and she wins a gold, Hitler would not be amused and this could have nasty repercussions for the officials in charge. Ergo the plan is to enter a ringer, a talented male jumper who has been masquerading as female jumper with success. Though that may sound improbable it actually happened. The jumper is identified as Marie Ketteler though his real name at the time was Dora Ratjen.
The main action begins at the training camp where Gretel and Marie are room mates. As a Jew, Gretel is subject to continuous slights and insults and Marie is portrayed as supportive.
The biggest deviation from reality was the scene in which Marie reveals himself to Gretel to be male. Gretel said she only found out about it years latter from an article in Time Magazine on males who competed as females.
Gretel is omitted from the competitors due to lack of performance. Marie competes and finishes fourth. The film suggests Marie intentionally performed poorly out of protest to the exclusion of Gretel and as Marie set a new world record in 1938 this does lend some credence to that portrayal.
The most interesting scenes are at the camp with the actors practicing their jumps. Thereafter the narrative gets lost in the machinations of Gretel's expulsion and the scenes at the Olympic village are too fakey.
Karoline Herfurth gives a credible performance as the embattled Gretel while Sebastian Urzendowsky performs heroically in dresses.
As a film its strongest point is the strangeness of the circumstances rather than any merit as a drama.
The main action begins at the training camp where Gretel and Marie are room mates. As a Jew, Gretel is subject to continuous slights and insults and Marie is portrayed as supportive.
The biggest deviation from reality was the scene in which Marie reveals himself to Gretel to be male. Gretel said she only found out about it years latter from an article in Time Magazine on males who competed as females.
Gretel is omitted from the competitors due to lack of performance. Marie competes and finishes fourth. The film suggests Marie intentionally performed poorly out of protest to the exclusion of Gretel and as Marie set a new world record in 1938 this does lend some credence to that portrayal.
The most interesting scenes are at the camp with the actors practicing their jumps. Thereafter the narrative gets lost in the machinations of Gretel's expulsion and the scenes at the Olympic village are too fakey.
Karoline Herfurth gives a credible performance as the embattled Gretel while Sebastian Urzendowsky performs heroically in dresses.
As a film its strongest point is the strangeness of the circumstances rather than any merit as a drama.