In the waning days of World War II, the isolated German island of Amrum

, which the film is named after, is quietly torn in two. In the middle is Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck), a young boy whose zealous mother Hille (Laura Tonke) awaits the return of her Nazi official husband and the arrival of her baby, on the cusp of being born when the film begins. Hille is far from nurturing, more concerned about Nanning’s belief in the Nazi party than his experience as a young boy.

On the other side is her sister Ena (Lisa Hagmeister), who often clashes with Hille about her beliefs, though it’s clear she’s not comfortable fully denouncing her sister. Maybe it’s family ties, maybe it’s her pregnancy, but either way, their perspectives on the war are just the tip of an elegant and challenging tapestry that director Fatih Akin weaves about the ways in which fascism infects a small community.

Amrum Asks A Lot Of The Audience

The Drama Requires Patience

Though Nanning is a member of the local Nazi Youth, his thoughts on the war are understandably opaque. Given his age, he only views the war through the lens of family, concerned more with when his father will come home or what food he can put on the table for his pregnant mother than anything else. Caught between the two sisters as the war ends, Nanning seeks to please his mother while trying to understand his aunt, who becomes increasingly distant as clarity on the German surrender reaches the isolated island.

It’s almost too much for Nanning to process, so he instead focuses on the simple task of acquiring white bread, ʙuттer, and honey for his mother, who refuses to eat after giving birth. The items are hard to find in these times of scarcity, but Nanning is persistent. Through this, Akin has Nanning go on a journey of self-discovery of sorts, with the beautiful island serving as a peaceful backdrop against the undercurrent of the horror of war.

Amrum doesn’t necessarily complete Nanning’s journey, though. By the end of the film, it’s still unclear how he was ultimately changed by what transpired in the waning hours of the war. News reaches Amrum in bits and pieces — Adolf Hitler has merely “fallen,” with German reports not mentioning the word suicide.

We don’t even hear officially about the German surrender. Rather, we learn about it as citizens of the island take down their Nazi flags and celebrate with lively music. This celebration confuses Nanning, and it’s perhaps this that drives him to focus so singularly on acquiring the bread, ʙuттer, and honey.

As a coming-of-age story, Amrum feels slight, coupled with Akin’s spare imagery as Nanning runs across vast beaches and fields used to feed locals. One of the people who oversee those fields is Tessa (Akin collaborator Diane Kruger), already wary of feeding everyone in these difficult times and even more so when, at the beginning of the film, a group of refugees arrive on Amrum. She wonders aloud if this means the war is coming to a close as the Russians close in on Berlin.

It’s this thinking that prompts Nanning to question when his father is coming home, resulting in Hille reporting Tessa for anti-war sentiments and Nanning losing his job as a helper in the fields. In this way, Nanning finds himself on the side of the Nazis and one of the biggest challenges of Amrum is finding a way to sympathize with the little boy who is being raised in an environment that fosters a sinister mindset. Unfortunately, Amrum doesn’t fully confront all the questions it poses, instead serving as a meditation on the ways a child might respond to a world he doesn’t fully understand.

Amrum premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.