Trautmann

The Keeper (aka Trautmann) is a 2018 British-German biographical film directed by Marcus H. Rosenmüller and starring German actor David Kross as the footballer Bert Trautmann. Although the subject of the film was an athlete, the film has been described as "not primarily a sports film" but instead a drama. The film premiered at the 2018 Zurich Film Festival, and was released in Germany under the title Trautmann on 14 March 2019. It was released in the UK and Ireland on 5 April 2019. Plot In 1945, German paratrooper Bert Trautmann (David Kross) is captured while fighting in the forests near Kleve. Transferred to a British POW camp in Lancashire, he and his comrades are kept under strict conditions and made to work to repair the damage their country has caused to the surrounding area. Jack Friar (John Henshaw), a local tradesman and manager of non-league side St Helens Town, spots Trautmann keeping goal against other POWs during a trip to deliver treats to the camp commander and bribes the commander into allowing Trautmann to be allowed out of the camp, whereupon he recruits him to play as goalkeeper for his relegation-threatened side. Although the war has recently ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany, the other players are angered to be asked to play alongside a man who is from a country they were until recently at war with, but with little other option they agree to take to the field. A string of strong performances see the players slowly come to accept Bert's place in the team. As a condition of his continuing appearances, Friar agrees to let Bert help work in his shop, leading Friar's daughter Margaret (Freya Mavor) to soften her initially-hostile stance, and the pair begin an unlikely romance.