Das Verschwinden des Josef Mengele

Shot mostly in black and white, it only goes into colour when showing Mengele's life in the Auschwitz camp, like that was when he felt most alive in comparison to being on the run and afraid for his own life later on.

The film skilfully interweaves his experiences when assuming different aliases in different locations at different times, mostly in South America. Fascinating details about his relationship with his family, father, brothers, wives and son; also with the network of Nazi supporters in South America at that time, including a Hungarian family who didn't care for him staying with them but put up with him in return for generous payments from his supporters.

Manages to capture the fanaticism, cold detachment, fits of temper and descent into angry, bitter misery as he gets older, without overplaying or overacting this.

Found this all more interesting than I thought I would. Recommended.

Having seen several Serebrennikov films, I was worried to watch this film. Serebrennikov I know is never afraid to use in your face symbolism and bend reality for a good scene or two.

This film mostly escapes from such tropes. It mostly keeps a low-key profile, filmed in high-contrast, beautiful black and white in German, Spanish and... Hungarian.

So, this is not about Mengele at his Aushwitz peak of evil performance, this is about Mengele escaping and hiding and getting old. There is a scene showing what Mengele was capable of, but it feels appropriate in the movie, as otherwise the viewer would be completely off the hook for deciding to watch a film about freaking Mengele.

Other than that, the film is a faithful adaptation of a non-fiction account of Mengele's life in exhile. There are some interesting twists in the story, so the less you know about them - the better.

In the end, I am not sure what the viewer is supposed to get from watching the film. It seems to try to reopen a discussion on whether Mengele was the product of German culture, psyche, philosophy. The way Nazi table talk contrasts with the chilled, relaxed Latin American way is difficult not to notice.

In the end, given that the film is consciously subdued, it provides an exploration of a story that is no longer well-known by the masses, although once - in the 80s - there was a detailed Time article that provided most of the film's plot.

It's a robust, strong work, faithful to the material and history, so would be interesting to amateur historians. It mostly doesn't go into the sensational, absurdist or crazy territory, which is a rarity for a film covering this period and this persona. And, in a way, this is both bad and good: by not showing all the horrors of Mengele's work, our human brains provide the benefit of a doubt to a character that was seemingly devoid of empathy and compassion. And in the end it is the viewer who needs to decide for himself - what it was that made Mengele do the things he did.

I watched at the Belgrade Film d'auteur Festival. This kind of festival is exactly the right spot for this kind of movie.

If you can't move for at least a couple of minutes after the end, it tells a lot. It is harsh, rough, disturbing, intense and powerful, with August Diehl's brilliant role as Mengele. And, in my opinion, the story of Josef Mengele should be exactly like that. This movie is not entertainment; it is a cinematographic art.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOSEPH MENGELE by hyper-active maverick Russian filmmaker KYRIL SEREBRENNIKOV ("The Ballad of Limonov" 2024; "Tchaikovsky's Wife"; "Leto"; etc) is a rare case of a disturbing and hypnotic feature adding value to an excellent original novel (the eponymous bestseller by french writer Olivier Guez, telling the south american exile of Auschwitz medic Mengele, also known as the Angel of Death, narrated in 'his fictionalized first person and voice'...): Jumping back and forth from Argentina to Germany and Brazil at a sharp and nervous pace, the film is timed as an escape thriller which never bores, even if the outcome is public knowledge since the 80's. All thanks to the skills of this ecclectic author who almost always treats vintage or historical subjects with a contemporary feel and tempo, plus little known but greatly directed actors. This time he chose to shoot in German to add urgency and realism, eventhough the book was written in french and well translated to english. Current action is filmed in crisp Black and White, while war-time flashbacks and a riverside scene are in over-exposed Light & Color that seem 'lifted' from "The Zone of Interest".

AUGUST DIEHL (seen in Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards", and last year as the Devil of a new baroque and russian version of "The Master and Margarita"; soon in Pavel Pawlikovsky next movie) gives an OUTSTANDING controlling dual and threatening PERFORMANCE of the monstruous yet horribly human Bad Doctor. We've rarely appreciated a more charismatic turn by a german male actor since Klaus Maria Brandauer ("Mephisto").

I screened the film in Paris last week in a full moviehouse but on a limited number of screens: a conservative release ahead of bigger xmas goodies, or a subject now "unpopular"? Its relevance in the face of current human crisis, manipulations and wars is very much now.

Got a chance to watch it in Leipzig on a Kinofestival earlier than official release.

Wonderful operator work, strong vibe, unreal attention to details of his biography. Sex scenes are captivating, the play really has a soul.

I wasn't expecting much, since I never saw someone replicating his biography so accurate in a movie, but they did it. It's insane, it's high quality, it a has unique perspective on him, it's a masterpiece, one of the best movies I ever seen, left alone based on biography of Josef Mengele.

Absolutely huge props to creators. It was an incredible experience.