# V13 (film)
**V13** is a 2025 American drama film directed and co-written by Richard C. Ledes, in which a fictionalized young [Adolf Hitler](https://www.edgepedia.org/adolf-hitler) becomes friends with a Viennese musician who undergoes psychoanalysis with [Sigmund Freud](https://www.edgepedia.org/sigmund-freud) in Vienna in 1913. The screenplay is based on the play *Vienne 1913* by the French psychoanalyst and writer Alain Didier-Weill, whose work focused on the rise of extreme [German nationalism](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-nationalism) before World War I and how it gave rise to Nazism.[1](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Richard C. Ledes (director, co-writer, co-producer, editor); co-writer Alain-Didier Weill[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) |
| Source | Stage play *Vienne 1913* by Alain Didier-Weill, a French psychoanalyst[1](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13) |
| Principal cast | Alan Cumming as Sigmund Freud, Samuel H. Levine as Adolf, Liam Aiken as Hugo[3](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/v13/) |
| Release | Premiere April 3, 2025 (United States); limited theatrical release May 5, 2025[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) |
| Runtime / language | 102 minutes, in English[3](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/v13/) |
| Production | Footnote Four and Vienna 1913 Productions; estimated budget $1,500,000[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/) |
| Reception | IMDb rating 5.1/10 from 50 users; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer based on 2 reviews[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and subject
The story is set in Vienna in 1913, on the brink of World War I. Two young men from different backgrounds become friends: Hugo, a musician from a privileged family, enters psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud, complaining of an impulsive revulsion tinged with hatred for Jews, which Freud accepts him for treatment over. Adolf, a struggling artist obsessed with vegetarianism, falls in love with German nationalism.[1](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13) • [5](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1372889-v13) Set against a background of rising fascism, the film presents a modern vision of Freud and portrays the origins of what the promotional materials call the Nazi *Weltanschauung*.[1](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13) • [5](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1372889-v13)
The film revisits the youth of Adolf Hitler freely and includes several psychoanalysis scenes, centering on philosophical exchanges between the characters; the Quebec film classification office described it as halfway between drama and essay, with a theatrical treatment.[6](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/v13-445881/) Ledes has said the film raises questions about the relation between this moment in the past and the rise of ethno-nationalism in the present.[1](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13)
## Production
Although set in 1913 Vienna, the film was shot overtly in contemporary New York City, particularly in the Bronx.[5](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1372889-v13) Ledes wrote the screenplay based on Didier-Weill's play; this is his second fiction film based on the work of a Lacanian psychoanalyst, after *The Caller* (2008), which also adapted Didier-Weill and won the Made in New York Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival.[7](https://watch.eventive.org/apres-coup/play/68caf088979053f9b24a0e17) The crew includes cinematographer [Antonio Rossi](https://www.edgepedia.org/antonio-rossi), production designer Kory Diskin, and composer Silent Strike.[7](https://watch.eventive.org/apres-coup/play/68caf088979053f9b24a0e17) Production companies were Footnote Four and Vienna 1913 Productions, with Daniel Sollinger co-producing; Apple TV lists Crystal Fox Films as studio.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/) • [8](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/v13/umc.cmc.76rvuw9jlfgdcmqtm54molpih)
## Release
The film premiered in the United States on April 3, 2025, the date on which it also played at the IFC Center in New York with a post-screening question-and-answer session featuring [Alan Cumming](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-cumming) and Richard C. Ledes.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/) • [3](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/v13/) Rotten Tomatoes lists a limited theatrical release on May 5, 2025.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) It later became available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi, and was rated TV-MA on Tubi.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) • [9](https://tubitv.com/movies/100041629/v13) Psychoanalytic organizations also screened it, including the Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association in New York and Corpo Freudiano Vancouver, each followed by a discussion with Ledes.[7](https://watch.eventive.org/apres-coup/play/68caf088979053f9b24a0e17) • [10](https://watch.eventive.org/corpofreudianovancouver/play/67df948c24f2b9f1f76473fd)
## Reception
The critical response was divided. Tom Atkinson of Film Threat gave it 8/10, writing that viewers do not watch V13 for narrative comfort but to be rattled, and that in that it succeeds.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) Josh Bell of Crooked Marquee gave it a C−, calling it a tedious, stilted drama whose premise of Sigmund Freud taking on Adolf Hitler is more enticing than what Ledes offers.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) On IMDb the film holds a 5.1/10 rating from 50 users.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/)
Reviewers repeatedly noted the film's dialogue-heavy, essayistic style. An audience reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes described it as relying almost entirely on dense, nonstop dialogue, with frequent shifts between black-and-white sequences and historical moments.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13) PJ Grisar of The Forward wrote that the film transplants the tinderbox of 1913 Austria to a setting at once familiar and unsettling, comparing the Pan-Germanists of the past to the [Proud Boys](https://www.edgepedia.org/proud-boys) of today.[11](https://kinema.com/films/v13-dpgg0u) Leslie Camhi, a cultural critic and historian of psychoanalysis, described it as a complex portrait of the psychoanalytic profession at a vertiginous moment in history, asking whether the talking cure can also cure society's ills.[7](https://watch.eventive.org/apres-coup/play/68caf088979053f9b24a0e17)
## References
1. [V13, Laemmle Theatres](https://www.laemmle.com/film/v13)
2. [V13, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/v13)
3. [V13, IFC Center](https://www.ifccenter.com/films/v13/)
4. [V13 (2025), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34428655/)
5. [V13, The Movie Database (TMDB)](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1372889-v13)
6. [V13, Répertoire des films classés, Gouvernement du Québec](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/v13-445881/)
7. [V13 – Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association screening](https://watch.eventive.org/apres-coup/play/68caf088979053f9b24a0e17)
8. [V13, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/v13/umc.cmc.76rvuw9jlfgdcmqtm54molpih)
9. [V13 (2025), Tubi](https://tubitv.com/movies/100041629/v13)
10. [V13 & Live Discussion, Corpo Freudiano Vancouver](https://watch.eventive.org/corpofreudianovancouver/play/67df948c24f2b9f1f76473fd)
11. [V13, Kinema](https://kinema.com/films/v13-dpgg0u)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on stage plays*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license