AllMovie

Berlin-born filmmaker Erwin Leiser cemented his reputation with the low-key 1959 documentary Mein Kampf. Combining newsreel footage and eyewitness interviews, this film established Leiser's cinematic throughline of exploring Germany's tragic past. 1986's Following the Fuhrer, codirected by Adolf Winkelman combines fact with fiction as it chronicles the misadventures of a group of Third Reich advocates in the closing days of the war. As their world literally explodes around them, these faithful few huddle together to survive, trying and failing to sustain their beliefs with Hitlerian fantasies. Though the documentary footage can't be faulted in Following the Fuhrer, the film stumbles whenever the characters are given lines to speak.