Volker Schöndorff about his film Calm at sea.

This authentic story recounts the events which led up to the early death of a 17-year-old boy, Guy Môquet, who is the equivalent in France of Sophie Scholl. The film portrays on these three levels – the command headquarters, the camp, and the bunker on the coast – the few hours between the shot fired on the German officer and the execution of the hostages. A drama in which each of those involved seems to be a puppet dangling on the strings of an inexorable machin Death comes to them in the form o an administrative act. But they are human beings standing face-to- fac the hostages who refuse to wear a blindfold, the riflemen looking them in the eye, and the officials and officers who cannot escape their conscience.