Raoul Peck's The Young Karl Marx is not your typical historical biopic. Stripping away myth and monument, the film dives into the turbulent early years of Marx's life with urgency and grit, capturing the fire of youth and the birth of ideas that would come to define an era.
It is a vivid reminder that world-changing ideas often begin not in polished halls of power, but in cramped apartments, crowded pubs, and cheap printing presses.
The 2017 film picks up the story of Marx when he was only 26 years old. He wasn't yet the towering figure who would author Das Kapital. At this point, he was a struggling writer with a newborn child, living in exile, clashing with editors and revolutionaries alike.
It follows the German philosopher, journalist, and political theorist as he was expelled from one country after another for his unrelenting criticism of capitalism and authoritarian rule.
On this day, May 5, we mark the birth anniversary of Marx – a thinker whose ideas still ignite debates, movements, and dreams.
"Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
—Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, 1888.
The film captures this moment of becoming with striking intensity. August Diehl plays Marx with a mix of arrogance, idealism, and righteous anger. He is not a marble statue—he is hungry, argumentative, impatient.
Friedrich Engels (played by Stefan Konarske), son of a wealthy industrialist, is his unlikely ally: a man who walks away from privilege to fight for the working class. Together, they challenge utopian socialists, confront economic philosophers, and eventually co-author The Communist Manifesto—a document that would inspire revolutions and movements for generations.
But Peck's film does not glorify blindly. It humanises. Marx's brilliance is shown alongside his flaws – his combative nature, his recklessness, his pride.
Engels is the steadying hand, the quieter thinker, often overshadowed but indispensable. Vicky Krieps's portrayal of Jenny Marx offers a glimpse into the emotional toll of radicalism – the sacrifices made not only by the revolutionaries but by those who loved and supported them.
The strength of the film lies in its restraint. Peck doesn't offer sweeping montages or overblown melodrama. Instead, he gives us the slow burn of intellectual evolution. The arguments matter. The words matter.
We watch as the ideas take shape – class struggle, alienation, labour exploitation. And though these concepts were forged in the 1840s, their modern resonance is unmistakable.
Marx would go on to live much of his life in poverty in London, never witnessing the revolutions his writings helped inspire.
He died in 1883, relatively unknown outside radical circles. And yet today, whether admired, contested, or vilified, his ideas remain central to debates about inequality, labour, and justice.
The Young Karl Marx reminds us that history is made not only by kings and generals, but by young people with fierce ideas and little to lose.
It is a film about the painful birth of a dream – a dream that still haunts and inspires the world.
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