Before there were bombs , there were cameras. That is roughly the thesis of “A German Youth,” which traces the origins of the Red Army Faction, the far-left West German guerrilla group that began unleashing violence in the late 1960s.

The film unfurls its narrative through a barrage of news pieces, television commentary and politically charged movie clips made by people like Holger Meins, who studied filmmaking before joining the militants.

The result, from the French first-time feature director Jean-Gabriel Périot, is a dizzying archival assemblage. The pace is too rapid for any nonexpert to absorb or glean the significance of all the details, which Périot generally leaves unexplained. But this documentary is fitfully thought-provoking, and particularly good at illustrating political fault lines of the time. (Those who remember the Third Reich tend to see democratic right-wing governance as a step up.)