Truth & Treason (2025)

The real story behind Truth & Treason is stronger than the uneven film built around it, but the actors carry it a long way. Ewan Horrocks plays Helmuth Hübener, a teenager in Hamburg during World War II, a Latter-day Saints kid who tunes a shortwave radio to the BBC and realizes the news he’s been fed at home isn’t the truth. So he writes anti-Nazi leaflets, and two friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudolf Wobbe, help spread them around the city. Rupert Evans is the standout as Erwin Mussener, a Nazi officer who swings between confusion, a flicker of sympathy and anger at these boys. Matt Whitaker tells it plainly and sincerely. If you want more, there’s also a four-part series version. Critics landed at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences gave it an A CinemaScore. A 7.1 because the true story is powerful and the cast honors it, even when the film stumbles. $31.44 says you bring up Helmuth’s name at dinner this week, and someone at the table has never heard it.

What works: Ewan Horrocks and Rupert Evans give the story real weight, and the film treats Helmuth’s courage with care and respect.

What doesn’t: The film is uneven from scene to scene, and it rarely matches the power of the true story it’s telling.

Who it’s for: Families with teens studying World War II, and anyone drawn to true stories of young people who refused to look away.