German cinema has been going through an active period of self-analysis recently. From the powerful Hitler drama Downfall (2004) to the Oscar winner The Lives of Others (2006), German filmmakers have been digging up their historical dirt and smearing it on the movie screens for all to recall and confront.

The latest autopsy on their country’s past is The Baader Meinhof Complex, a vivid 2½-hour drama that reconstructs the social and political turmoil in Germany in the 1970s. Two young Germans, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, led a group of radical activists in a violent campaign against their government, which they believed to be imperialistic and embodying the same values of the third Reich

Bombing offices and kidnapping public figures, the Baader-Meinhof gang – or the Red Army faction as it was later known – killed more than 30 people and injured many others. The film takes us through the violent chapters of the gang’s history, as well as the aftermath.

Directed by veteran helmer Uli Edel, The Baader Meinhof Complex is already a box-office hit in Germany. But we’re not entirely sure what appeal it would hold for audiences in Asia. Unless you’re a history junkie, the lengthy history lesson is likely to test your patience.

The film moves quickly from one chapter to the next, often skimping on characterisation in order to cover the facts as objectively as it can. Hence, despite the competent storytelling and skilled direction, one never gets a clear understanding of the main characters, let alone empathise. Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Baader’s girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) remain cool and distant enigmas.

Strictly for history and politics junkies.