The Hitler Youth Romance Movie Trailer Is Out, And It’s Just As Gross As You Imagined
Image by iStock/Forward Montage
A trailer has been released for the much-anticipated movie “Where Hands Touch” by Amma Asante, which follows a biracial German teen as she faces danger under Nazi-occupation and falls in love with a member of the Hitler Youth.
It’s gonna be a no from us.
And it’s a bummer, because the intention behind “Where Hands Touch” — to share the seldom-taught and misunderstood stories of biracial and black victims of the Nazi regime — is hugely valuable. Asante’s desire to use moviemaking to represent the underrepresented is crucial, and Amandla Stenberg is a magnificent presence and budding superstar.
But a star-crossed love story between a Holocaust victim and a Hitler Youth just won’t fly. Watching a young woman crawl out from beneath the floorboards and then cut to a steamy make-out with a boy in an armband should be a hard pass — in 2018 and any time. “The Sound of Music” was released in 1965 and it’s taken some of us that whole time to realize that Hitler heil-ing dream boy Rolf is a scumbag from start to finish — Asante’s noble Nazi-boy should take his short-shorts and cutesy ethno-nationalism and scram, too.
We surmise that the blame lies with the studio or producers, rather than new-ish auteur Assante, for not allowing a period drama about a biracial woman to make it to production without a plot-line about verboten hanky-panky with a genocide-enthusiast. But it won’t do.
“Where Hands Touch” will be in theaters starting September 14:
Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
