Robert Musil's novel Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings Torless was the source for this allegorical German film. Mathieu Carriere plays Torless, a student in a costly boarding school during the glory days of the Hapsburg empire. While at school, Carriere is a bystander to the sadistic behavior of fellow students Alfred Dietz and Bernd Tischer. Carriere watches with fascination, but does nothing to intervene or to help his classmates' hapless victims. When Carriere finally does blow the whistle on his friends, it is he who is invited to leave the school. If you miss the parallels in Young Torless to the Nazi years, then you aren't watching very carefully...or perhaps you're not watching at all.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide