Every old photograph holds a story. Some have waited more than a century to be told.
It begins with a picture.
Three young men in uniform, standing together before the world they knew was torn apart by war.
More than a hundred years later, the photograph becomes the starting point for a journey into the past — back to Germany, to family, friendship and the battlefields of the First World War.
For Alois Alke, growing up near Rolfzen and later joining the German Army through Paderborn, war is initially something spoken about with pride and certainty. Like millions of young men across Europe, he leaves home believing he understands what lies ahead.
He soon discovers that nobody does.
From the mud and fear of the trenches to the thunder of artillery and the slaughter surrounding Verdun, Alois and the men beside him are forced to grow old long before their time.
Friendships become as important as ammunition.
Orders are obeyed even when they make little sense.
Men disappear between one roll call and the next.
And survival can depend upon nothing more than a few inches, a moment of luck or the horse beneath you taking the wrong step.
For Alois, even a bullet that should have killed him takes an extraordinary path.
But surviving the war does not mean leaving it behind.
Years later, surrounded by another generation, Alois finally begins telling the stories that photographs cannot explain — stories of ordinary soldiers caught on opposite sides of an unimaginable conflict.
Inspired by real family history, Three Men in a Picture is a story of comradeship, courage, loss and survival during the First World War.
It is not a story about heroes and villains.
It is about men.
Men with families.
Men with fears.
Men who wanted to go home.
Three men stood for a photograph.
Then history sent them to war.
Only time would reveal the stories they carried home.