New Netflix film Munich – The Edge of War might tell a fictional story, but it is nonetheless very much steeped in real historical events.
The film takes place on the eve of the Second World War, following UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) as he attempts to avoid another global conflict by pursuing his policy of appeasement.
Most of the action unfolds in the run up to and at the Munich Peace Conference in 1938, where an agreement was reached between the UK, Germany, France and Italy that aimed to prevent war – in part by allowing the German annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
These events very much happened (although some historians have claimed that Chamberlain is portrayed much more sympathetically in the film than was the reality) but where the fiction comes into it is the storyline concerning Hugh Legat and Paul von Hartmann, the two central characters played by George MacKay and Jannis Niewöhner, who find themselves embroiled in a plot to bring down Adolf Hitler.
While there was indeed a conspiracy to kill Hitler in 1938, the manner in which this played out is not the same as the events we see in the film, and Hugh and Paul are both fictional characters – although the latter is reportedly loosely based on an anti-Nazi diplomat named Adam von Trott.
Despite this plot being fictional, however, both MacKay and Niewöhner told RadioTimes.com just how much research had gone in to the project to make sure the film was at least based in historical truth.
“There was the most amazing document made by the production team, where it was a website that you could log into,” MacKay explains. “And it was so extraordinary because for every historical character it would have links to websites, essays, historical footage, photographs, just an encyclopaedia of reading on each specific character, so that you could gain context for them.
“Then each department would put up location photos, or costume would have the designs up there so you could start to understand the world and the context of the world for each step,” he adds. “So there was this amazing bit of historical research on Oxford University in the ’30s, and the debating clubs, and some of the influence and some of the debates that ended up being in the British press.
“And that sort of stuff became a theme of the film, like the sport of discussion. And then there was stuff about like gender roles within that time within the university, all of these things, which just really gave sort of flesh and texture to the script.”
!["George]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/01/George-and-Jannis-9f5a870.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"George")
“That was really amazing that we had this website, and everyone could go there,” adds Niewöhner. “We could read something about the real-life characters, and then there were many books I could read, because for me it was very interesting to get a sense of that period of time where Paul was a child – because that’s where his motivation comes from.
“When we get to know him in ’32, he really believes in what Hitler says. And to get a sense of how it came to that was really, really interesting for me, and so there were many books and documentaries. I always found it really interesting to see a documentary which was colourised, not black and white, so you can really connect to the story in a different way.
“I actually didn’t know a lot about the Munich peace agreement, I may have heard of it, but I didn’t really know what it was about,” Niewöhner continues. “And Chamberlain is not a big name [In Germany], not as big as in the UK, obviously. So it was really interesting for me to learn more about this part of history.”
Munich – The Edge of War is on Netflix from Friday 21st January 2022. Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide.