GER / GB 2018 1hr 52mins Dir: Marcus H. Rosenmüller Starring: David Kross and Freya Mavor
The lifestory of Bert Trautmann, the former German prisoner-of-war who went on to become an FA Cup winning goalkeeper with Manchester City
This Anglo-German biographical drama is a worthy spectacle, and appears to be quite historically accurate. It has several CGI-generated steam-hauled trains in the landscape, one passing through Manchester Oxford Road, and the other passing Wembley Stadium, yet there is a genuine, if somewhat brief railway scene. This shows David Kross alighting from a train at a smokefilled Whitehead station in Northern Ireland.
This view of Manchester shows Oxford Road station in the centre, with the Kimpton Clocktower beyond. The station’s modern redevelopment in 1960 has been erased from the scene, but the overhead catenary is authentic and hardly modern. The Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway was electrified on the 1500 V DC overhead system as early as 1931. The CGI-generated steam train, however, unfortunately looks somewhat American in its appearence.
This is Wembley Stadium, before its redevelopment. This image was created through the effects of CGI, as was the steam train crossing the lower left of the picture.
This is the only genuine railway shot in the film, and it shows Whitehead station in Northern Ireland. The former Midland Railway carriages in the platform are owned by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland and their informative website tells us that vehicles 68, 87, and 697 were used.
