good one

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2016)

Downfall begins with an excerpt from the documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002), featuring Traudl Junge expressing her guilt and shame for admiring Hitler in her youth. The film continues showing Hitler (Bruno Ganz) hiring Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) as his secretary at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia in November 1942.
The story resumes on 20 April 1945, the Führer's birthday, during the Battle of Berlin. A loud artillery blast wakes up Traudl, Gerda Christian and Constanze Manziarly in the room they share. Down in the Führerbunker, Hitler is informed by Wilhelm Burgdorf that Berlin is under attack and then by Karl Koller that the Red Army has advanced to within 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) of central Berlin.
At Hitler's birthday reception, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and his SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein plead with Hitler to leave the city. Instead, Hitler declares, "I will defeat them in Berlin, or face my downfall." Himmler leaves to negotiate surrender terms with the Western Allies, behind Hitler's back. In another part of the city, a group of Hitler Youth members are bolstering defenses. Peter, one of the members, is urged by his father to desert but refuses.