Plot Summary

Amrum unfolds during the final days of II. World War, following twelve-year-old Nanning, who struggles to support his family on the remote island of Amrum. After their home in Hamburg is destroyed by Allied bombings, the family seeks refuge on this small island in the North Sea. Nanning’s father, a high-ranking Nazi official, has been taken prisoner of war, leaving the family fractured and vulnerable.

The suicide of Adolf Hitler plunges Nanning’s mother, Hille—an unwavering believer in National Socialism—into a severe psychological collapse. Suddenly burdened with adult responsibilities far beyond his years, Nanning must care for his emotionally shattered mother while also finding ways to survive in a world stripped of structure, certainty, and resources.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, scarcity defines everyday life. To secure food and basic necessities, Nanning is forced to barter and trade with the other inhabitants of Amrum. Yet the islanders are acutely aware of his family’s political past, and this inherited stigma shadows every interaction. The legacy of ideology becomes an unspoken barrier, shaping how others perceive him—and how he begins to see himself.

As physical survival grows inseparable from moral and emotional reckoning, Nanning’s journey evolves into an inner struggle. Amrum is a quietly devastating coming-of-age drama, examining guilt, inherited belief systems, and the painful process of identity formation in the ruins of a defeated nation.