The Rome Eight

by Hannu Salonen

A powerful underdog story based on true events: eight war kids rise from the margins to Olympic glory, redefining success in an elite sport and becoming unlikely symbols of hope, healing, and reconciliation in post-war Germany.

West Germany, late 1950s. In a small town on the East German border, physics teacher Karl Adam sees what no one else does: in a fatherless generation of angry young outsiders, the raw material of champions. He puts them in a rowing eight—giving their rage a rhythm, their lives a direction. While Germany's elitist rowing establishment mocks the schoolteacher and his misfits, the Cold War cuts deeper: rower Hans's great love lives just miles away—behind a border he can no longer cross. And the forces dividing the country threaten to tear the crew apart. Against exhaustion, ridicule, and the weight of the past, Adam forges eight individuals into a single stroke. At the Olympic Games, the team no one believed in takes its lane—ready to make history.

Genre / Language / Length
Drama / German / 123 minutes
Original title
Adams Acht
directed by
Hannu Salonen (OKTOBERFEST: BEER & BLOOD)
director of photography
Felix Cramer (THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON)
screenplay by
Domenik PockbergerStephan Falk
produced by
Ninety-Minute Film in co-production with Adams Acht, Sunday Filmproduktion and Majestic Filmproduktion.
Cast
  • Oliver Masucci (NEVER LOOK AWAY, LOOK WHO‘S BACK)
  • Felix Kammerer (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, FRANKENSTEIN)
  • Svenja Jung (DEUTSCHLAND 89)
  • Leonard Kunz (DAS BOOT)
  • Axel Milberg (HANNAH ARENDT, THE INTERNATIONAL)
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Press Quotes

„While following in the tradition of classic sports cinema, director Hannu Salonen bends the conventions of the genre to orchestrate a careful ethical and social exploration of Germany at the time, identifying sport as a tool capable of uniting an entire community: the synchronized motion of the rowing and the shared rhythm of the oars transcend the competitive dimension, becoming a symbolic image of a generation called upon to confront the ghosts of history and rediscover a common course.“
MYMOVIES

“A film worth seeing about an important chapter in German sports and social history. And even if the theme of coming to terms with the past is woven in somewhat contrivedly, it's still refreshing to experience a balanced film that largely avoids preaching.”
CICERO

“‘The Miracle of Bern' sends its regards—but ‘The Rome Eight' charts its own course. The film combines a gripping sports drama with German-German history. Add to that sweat, conflict, intense emotions, and plenty of team spirit. In the end, the message is clear: We're all in the same boat.”
BZ

“The film is smart and thoughtful, refreshingly unsentimental, and has a brilliant sense of the era in which it is set. ‘The Rome Eight' takes on quite a heavy load—and handles it with the seriousness it deserves—while bringing it to the screen so artfully and skillfully that it all comes together: the story of a triumph that nevertheless doesn't view the world through rose-colored glasses, one that honors the achievements of Karl Adam and his rowers while also serving as a valuable history lesson. The Miracle of Rome is real. And yet it's no whitewash. A victory alone cannot make us forget the past, and that's a good thing.”
SPOT MEDIA & FILM

“A gripping and moving sports drama. A must-see!”
MDR THÜRINGEN JOURNAL

Selected Festivals & Awards

21st Rome Film Fest
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