Rosa Luxemburg

Feminist filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta directed this biographical sketch of the early 20th century revolutionist and spokesperson for the left-wing Spartacus League. The film opens with Luxemberg (Barbara Sukowa) incarcerated in a Polish prison in 1905. Important events in her life are then detailed, showing her as a pacifist who openly criticizes the Kaiser and his militaristic regime. These actions result in her repeated arrest. She is brutally murdered in 1919 while being transported to prison, and her body is tossed into Berlin's Landwehrkanal. This film is a fictionalized account of Luxemburg's life derived from letters she had written. Originally, the late ...