Netflix has debuted the first trailer for its upcoming film Blood & Gold, a new German-language action comedy set “in the final days of the Second World War.” Directed by Peter Thorwarth, Blood & Gold stars Robert Maaser as Private Heinrich, a deserter who is “desperate to return home to his daughter,” but is sidetracked after being pulled into a treasure hunt.
The trailer opens with Heinrich being caught by marauding SS troops, who hang him from a tree after lecturing him about the dishonor that he has brought upon the name of Adolf Hitler. Heinrich is rescued in the nick of time by a woman named Elsa (Marie Hacke), who has her own personal vendetta against the Nazis. They’ve taken her brother prisoner, she tells him. Together, Elsa and Heinrich take the Nazis for a ride in their own backyard, and at the same time, settle personal scores. Meanwhile, the residents of a nearby village are putting up a last stand against the Nazis, in an effort to protect valuable Jewish gold.
The tone, in the beginning, is suitably somber. But as the trailer progresses, it begins to take a more Tarantino-esque shape. All Quiet on the Western Front this is not. We see quips, over-the-top villainy, and at one point, Elsa pours hot oil on a Nazi’s genitals. Seconds later, Heinrich impales another Nazi with a two-pronged pitchfork. The primary antagonist is a grotesque-looking man named Von Starnfeld, played by Alexander Scheer, clearly channeling Christophe Waltz.
War Movies and Treasure Hunt Adventures Go Hand in Hand
Thorwarth previously directed the horror thriller Blood Red Sky for Netflix, but he’s perhaps most acclaimed for co-writing the cult hit German thriller The Wave, in which a high school teacher conducts a social experiment to prove just how easy it would be to start another dictatorship in modern Germany. World War II dramas and treasure hunt adventures go hand in hand, which makes sense, considering just how many valuable artifacts were at risk during the Great War. Films like Three Kings and Da 5 Bloods took a similar premise and transported it to different conflict zones. The Monuments Men was very specifically about a crew’s efforts to protect valuable paintings from Nazis, while the very underrated Netflix film The Dig put a meditative spin on a similar set-up.
Blood & Gold also stars Jördis Triebel, Stephan Grossmann, Florian Schmidtke, Petra Zieser, Gisela Aderhold and Jochen Nickel. The film will be released on Netflix on May 26. You can watch the trailer here, and you can read the film’s official synopsis down below.
Spring 1945. Blood & Gold is set in the final days of the Second World War, telling the story of the German deserter Heinrich (Robert Maaser), the young and courageous farmer Elsa (Marie Hacke) – and a whole host of Nazis. On his way home from the front to his daughter, Heinrich stumbles into the clutches of a marauding SS troop. Their leader (Alexander Scheer) leaves him hanging in a tree. But he is saved at the last minute by Elsa, who hides him on her farm. Meanwhile, the SS is searching for a Jewish treasure hidden in a nearby village, meeting bitter resistance from the fed-up villagers, who want to keep the treasure for themselves. Soon, Heinrich and Elsa are unwillingly dragged into this action-packed hunt for the gold, culminating in a bloody showdown at the village church.
