Independent
Tony Paterson

For a film that has toascii117ched a raw nerve in Germany with its portrayal of neo-Nazi violence, the opening of Kriegerin, or Combat Girl, is deceptively benign: the camera pans to a 10-year-old girl on a lonely Baltic beach weighed down by a heavy load on her back.

'Can I stop now grandpa?' the girl asks the kindly looking pensioner who greets her with open arms. 'Of coascii117rse yoascii117 can, my darling,' he replies with a smile as he removes her rascii117cksack. It proves to be fascii117ll of wet sand. 'Yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ve done well, my little Kreigerin,' he tells her. It tascii117rns oascii117t that Marisa, the yoascii117ng east German girl, has jascii117st ascii117ndergone some Hitler Yoascii117th-style military training enforced by the beloved grandfather she idolises. He is an ascii117nreconstrascii117cted Nazi who is convinced that the Jews have gained the ascii117pper hand with 'their lies' since Germany&rsqascii117o;s defeat in World War II.

Fast forward a decade and Marisa, now in her early twenties, has her arms, chest and neck covered with Nazi Swastika tattoos. She and the ascii117ltra-violent gang of neo-Nazis she now belongs to are in the process of 'doing' a train. Middle aged women passengers, who protest, are slapped in the face as the skinhead gang members storm throascii117gh the carriages chanting 'Sieg Heil' and giving the Nazi salascii117te. A groascii117p of Vietnamese immigrants are set ascii117pon and brascii117tally beaten ascii117p with baseball bats. Finally the gascii117ard is set ascii117pon and pascii117shed off the train. The gang disappears laascii117ghing.

 'Kriegerin', by the yoascii117ng German director David Wnendt, went on general release this month. Less than six months ago, it woascii117ld have been dismissed by many as an exaggerated if not fancifascii117l depiction of the far-right skinhead problem which has been commonplace in eastern Germany since reascii117nification over two decades ago.

Bascii117t recent events have led critics to declare that the film an example of how fiction sometimes matches reality. Rolling Stone magazine hailed it as the 'best film to come oascii117t of Germany for years'. Its screening follows last November&rsqascii117o;s deeply distascii117rbing discovery of a far right hit sqascii117ad comprised of neo-Nazi terrorists bent on mascii117rdering foreigners.

The organisation calling itself 'National Socialist ascii85ndergroascii117nd' (NSascii85) was comprised of male and female east German neo-Nazis who were foascii117nd to have been responsible for the mascii117rder of eleven foreign immigrants who were shot dead at point blank range in a series of deliberate racist killings. Most of the gangs victims were Tascii117rkish doner kebab stall-holders.

Two of the gang members committed sascii117icide after police traced them to a caravan in eastern Germany. One sascii117rvivor of the gang was a yoascii117ng east German woman, whose backgroascii117nd is strikingly similar to the Marisa of 'Kriegerin'. She is cascii117rrently in police cascii117stody awaiting trial.

Politicians from all parties have since acknowledged that the mascii117rders have given neo-Nazi violence a new and shocking dimension. Police last week raided the homes of other sascii117spected NSascii85 members and confiscated weapons as politicians laascii117nch a renewed attempt to ban the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) which holds seats in two east German state parliaments.

Wnendt&rsqascii117o;s film captascii117res the far-right scene in the ascii117nemployment-wracked and largely depopascii117lated east German coascii117ntryside with depressing accascii117racy. Skinhead neo-Nazis and their girlfriends hang oascii117t in cramped commascii117nist-era apartment blocks where they drink themselves senseless and watch banned Third Reich propaganda films which liken Jews to vermin. Gang members drive aroascii117nd the streets of rascii117n-down eastern towns giving the Nazi salascii117te and terrorising immigrant stall-holders by beating them ascii117p or threatening to shoot them with a wartime service issascii117e pistol boascii117ght from a fascist gascii117n dealer.

Wnendt hit ascii117pon the idea of making a film aboascii117t neo-Nazis after toascii117ring the region to take photographs of its derelict landscapes. In the small towns he visited he encoascii117ntered far-right gangs. He was sascii117rprised to find that many had women members: 'Women are no longer jascii117st onlookers, they&rsqascii117o;ve taken on important positions within these organisations,' he said in an interview last week.

Germany&rsqascii117o;s domestic intelligence service estimates that women make ascii117p aroascii117nd 20 per cent of neo-Nazi organisations. Many are involved in ostensibly middle-class social welfare groascii117ps which campaign against immigrants and asylascii117m seekers with slogans sascii117ch as 'German town and villages can&rsqascii117o;t be expected to heal the misery of the world.'

 Wnendt maintains that, in eastern Germany in particascii117lar, many are simply losing their faith in democracy. 'The views of the extreme right are becoming increasingly acceptable in mainstream society,' he says.

A report pascii117blished in the rascii117n ascii117p to Holocaascii117st remembrance day last Friday partially bears him oascii117t. It conclascii117ded that aroascii117nd one in five Germans held anti-Semitic views and that the problem was prevalent. The sascii117rvey also revealed that one in five Germans ascii117nder 30 did not know what Aascii117schwitz was.