A Black boy dreams of joining the Hitler Youth. History's cruelest irony, unflinchingly told.
This drama is based on the childhood memories of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi, who was one of the few black native Germans in Nazi Germany. In 1935 at the age of nine, he lives with his German mother in a small flat in Hamburg's working class district Barmbek, while his father and grandfather had left the country. Although the boy is not persecuted by the Nazis and dreams of joining the Hitler Youth, his skin color makes him a target for racist abuse...
Acting
Thando Walbaum's crushing innocence amid hatred.
Production
Painstaking Hamburg period detail that suffocates.
Writing
Massaquoi's memoir adapted with zero sentimentality.
Director
Jörg Grünler
Veronica Ferres
Bertha Baetz
Thando Walbaum
Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi
Petra Kelling
Elisabeth Möller
Götz Schubert
Franz Wahl
Charly Hübner
Polizist Reesen
Adrian Topol
Ernst Kröger
Tim Wilde
Boxtrainer Rudi
Frederick Lau
Fiete Petersen
Jan Niklas Berg
Fritz Goldstein
Arved Birnbaum
Chef der Musterung
Dörte Lyssewski
Schwester Else
Falk Rockstroh
Herr Petersen
Michael Schönborn
Dr. Abraham Goldstein
Jürgen Tarrach
Wilhelm Mahnke
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Massaquoi later became managing editor of Ebony magazine—this boy survived to tell, and told globally.
The title slur was chanted at young Massaquoi daily; reclaiming it as the title was his deliberate choice. The 2006 German broadcast sparked rare mainstream discourse on Black German history.
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