“We obviously didn’t know that there would be a war now in Ukraine, and it’s not supposed to be a comment,” Berger says. “But when we started it, we did feel there was a certain U.S. government. There was Brexit in Europe. In Hungary, in Poland, in Germany, in France — the populists started questioning institutions that had brought us peace for 70 years, in a continent that is usually torn by war. It just reminded us of the stuff we learned in history lessons when we were kids.”

“I find it interesting if you touch holy material, such as this book, and do something new with it. We add some interesting historical and political context,” Brühl says. “I’m proud of the power, the energy, that Felix Kammerer and all the actors in the trenches and Edward put into this.”

Mounting a production of this magnitude during the height of the pandemic only amplified the challenges Berger and his production team faced. On a swath of land spanning the size of three football fields, production designer Christian M. Goldbeck and his art department constructed vast trench layout for cinematographer James Friend to capture with the large-format ARRI ALEXA 65 camera.

“My instinct was to put the 65mm in a confined trench and open it up to the audience,” Friend says. “It’s not just designed for vistas; it’s fantastic to punctuate portraiture and close-ups.”

Berger’s approach was all about putting the audience into the shoes of soldier Paul Bäumer, portrayed by Kammerer in his  screen debut. He and Friend shot the film largely with one camera.

“When you read the novel, the language is fascinating because it gives a very physical and visceral experience, and yet, it’s almost written like a journalist,” Berger says. “It’s sort of a laconic tone, not emotional. It lets you interpret the emotion, and we wanted to try to capture the same, putting you in his shoes but also staying back and being observant.”

It was unusual experience to portray Paul because of the “palette of emotions” on display. The young man’s journey starts with joy and love, and progresses through hardship terrors of war to his own tragic fate.

The Viennese stage actor worked with dialect coach, wore mud-soaked costumes weighing 90 pounds and kept track of his character’s emotional temperature from scene to scene with the use of spreadsheet. For Kammerer, who comes from the theater, acting scenes out of sequence was a new experience.

“To prepare, I ran 10 kilometers three times a week, wearing a 10 kilo vest, because I was already thinking that the movie shoot would be strenuous,” Kammerer says. “I wanted to build up my condition, and it really helped. Although, it turned out, in the driving rain after the first week of filming, that 10 kilos was rather optimistic!”

Makeup and hair designer Heike Merker used many variations of mud on display in the film. The gooey grime changes and shifts throughout as precipitation and bombing fallout drench the settings in various sequences — to say nothing of the ghastly effects of war on the human body, depicted with unflinching detail. The practical elements of the production were key in driving Berger’s on-the-ground point of view.

“We created lots of textures, colors and dirt to build the character makeup,” Merker says. “Paul is our main character, and his makeup and hair chart his experience in war. We hoped to illustrate that he has grown into a soldier.”

The sound, including a sensory-invading, electronically textured score from composer Volker Bertelmann, part of the experience. Berger established the aural quality of a “war machine” with the effects and mix, which was a metaphor for the mechanization of war: steel mills, massive iron gears and machines that fed the prolonged conflict with endless supply of artillery. The only shortage was in the supply of soldiers, who were but cogs in the monstrosity of it all.

War is often associated with heroism. When an American or British filmmaker portrays it in a movie, that feeling permeates the screen. But what he ultimately saw in the new adaptation was chance to present a different perspective that is uniquely German.

“It’s a perspective which no longer exists in modern war movies because we usually lack the courage and opportunities to show it,” Berger says. “Our view of war is marked by grief and shame, sorrow and death, destruction and guilt. There is nothing positive or heroic. Every death, regardless of which side, is death, and is therefore simply horrific. It’s a person who died.

I felt that making our history, background and attitude towards war the driving force behind the movie was a huge and fascinating challenge, and I thought it might be interesting to share this perspective from Germany with the world.”