Amrum - Official Site | Palace Films

CENTERPIECE SELECTION - 2026 HSBC GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL (6–27 May)

Critics' Rating 97%

Graceful and profound. Generous, classical and soul-stirring... walks an impossible morality line with delicate beauty. A near-extinct big-screen film about the innocence of childhood, its loss and endurance.

Tomris Laffly

VARIETY

A gem. A magnificent drama that emphasises the human and emotional dimensions often overlooked in traditional war films.

Olivier Delcroix

LE FIGARO

Poignant and wonderfully understated. There’s nothing showy about Amrum, but it can leave an audience shaken. Akin has fashioned a rare film that relies on the power of simplicity to tell a story that is anything but simple.

Steve Pond

THE WRAP

A deeply moving masterpiece. Fatih Akin is a formidable storyteller and an immense filmmaker. Served by a fine cast and memorable characters, 'Amrum' is a generous, humanistic and terribly relevant film. Essential viewing.

Mohamed Berkani

FRANCEINFO CULTURE

Engrossing and poignant. A film that lingers in our minds long after the end credits have rolled by. Akin’s story is part of a bigger story of 'them' and 'us' but ultimately demonstrates how 'they' might be closer to 'us' than we may initially have imagined.

Dr Jytte Holmqvist

AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW

Director: Fatih Akin

Cast: Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Kian Koppke, Matthias Schweighöfer, Diane Kruger

Duration: 93mins

Country of Origin: Germany

Mature themes

Critics' Rating 97%

Tomris Laffly

VARIETY

A gem. A magnificent drama that emphasises the human and emotional dimensions often overlooked in traditional war films.

AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW

OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2025 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Cannes Premiere)
2026 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - NOMINEE (x6) incl. Best Film & Best Cinematography
CENTREPIECE SELECTION - 2026 GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL

The celebrated new film from award-winning director Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven, In The Fade), AMRUM is a moving historical drama about a 12-year-old boy caught between family allegiance and an emerging moral conscience in wartime Germany.

Spring 1945, the remote North Sea island of Amrum. In what will become the final days of World War II, big-hearted young student Nanning (exceptional newcomer Jasper Billerbeck) has a busy life. He braves the treacherous sea to hunt seals, fishes at night, and works the neighbouring potato farm run by Tessa (Diane Kruger) to help his pregnant mother Hille (Laura Tonke) – a fervent Nazi loyalist - feed the family. His father, captured as a prisoner of war, is unable to offer help or guidance to his son.

When a radio broadcast brings news of Hitler’s fall, Nanning’s world begins to unravel. His devastated mother refuses to eat anything other than white bread, butter and honey. Craving her affection, the ever-enterprising Nanning embarks on a quest across the island to obtain these precious, near-impossible to find ingredients...

Inspired by the childhood experiences of screenwriter Hark Bohm, AMRUM beautifully evokes a place suspended in time. Through the eyes of a child awakening to the moral collapse around him, Fatih Akin's deeply human and lyrical film offers a profound meditation on innocence, loss, and the enduring need for compassion - a theme as urgent today as ever.