This movie involves around two male teenagers. They spend most of their time together. They barely interact with any other classmates. It is a sweet boyhood friendship movie, but is it also hinting at a homosexual relationship? There are so many other classmates that the newcomer could have picked, he picked this particular one.

Generally speaking, this is a good movie. You won't even notice when it comes to an end. It seems to be so sudden.

Obviously deeply felt by both writer and director, immaculately designed on what seems to be a lavish budget by veteran Alexander Trauner (who appears early on playing the caretaker) and photographed in widescreen suffused in a nostalgiac glow by cameraman Bruno De Keyzer. The leisurely pace at which 'Reunion' unfolds conveys something of the gradualness with which the appalling reality overwhelms its characters, although the slow-burning first hour is disrupted by jarringly emphatic black & white inserts to keep reminding the audience of the calamity about to strike (as if they needed such nudging). Konradin's credulous willingness to give a demagogic snake-oil salesman like Hitler the benefit of the doubt - "He really impressed me. He is totally sincere. He has such... he has true passion. I think he can save our country. He is our only hope." - however remains depressingly familiar today.

But for the final, very abrupt, 'surprise' ending to work, the audience is assumed not to be able to recognise the ferrety face of Roland Freisler, occasionally seen although never identified by name (and ironically - as played by Roland Schäfer looking remarkably like John Malkovich in heavy eye-liner - relatively restrained compared to the actual bellowing maniac preserved for posterity in newsreels). And would it really have taken over forty years and a trip all the way back to the very school in Stuttgart were they were originally pupils for Henry to only now learn Konradin's fate?

Every time I talk about or remember this movie, I feel very touched and emotional. It made a tremendous impression upon me. I consider the acting extremely well done. The characters were very convincing. I found it an exercise with dealing with prejudice. For anybody who has had close friendships in their adolescent, I would recommend this film.