Build a movie plot around this: Who dies in Reiser's arms? Witzland
In August 1942, German soldiers enjoy leave in Cervo, Liguria, Italy after fighting in North Africa. An assembly is then held and several of the men are awarded, including Unteroffizier Manfred "Rollo" Rohleder (Jochen Nickel) and Obergefreiter Fritz Reiser (Dominique Horwitz), who are both introduced to Leutnant Hans von Witzland (Thomas Kretschmann), their new platoon commander. The unit is promptly sent to the Eastern Front to participate in the Battle of Stalingrad.Witzland's platoon joins a company commanded by Hauptmann Hermann Musk (Karel Hermanek). Musk leads an assault on a factory, which results in heavy casualties and the survivors being surrounded in a decrepit building. After a botched ceasefire to rescue some wounded outside, they capture Kolya, a young Russian boy. The Russians attack again the next day, and Kolya escapes in the confusion. With the radio not working, von Witzland, Reiser, Rollo, Emigholtz (Heinz Emigholz), "GeGe" Muller (Sebastian Rudolph) and Wolk (Zdenek Vencl) enter the sewers to go for help. Witzland gets separated from the others and captures a Russian soldier named Irina (Dana Vavrova), who offers to lead him to safety in exchange for her freedom, but when he is not looking she pushes him into the water and escapes. His men rescue him, and Emigholtz is found severely wounded by an explosive trap; they take him to a crowded aid station, where Reiser forces an orderly at gunpoint to work on him. Emigholtz dies anyway, and they are arrested by Hauptmann Haller (Dieter Okras), who has already clashed with von Witzland. They end up in a penal battalion disarming land mines.Four weeks later, a brutal winter has set in and the Soviets have utterly surrounded the German Sixth Army. Hauptmann Musk thus reassigns the penal battalion which includes disgraced fellow officer Otto (Sylvester Groth) to combat duty. Witzland's platoon defends a position from a Russian tank column, and emerge victorious after a bloody battle (during which Wolk is killed). Hauptman Haller...