Labyrinth of Lies – movie review

Set in Frankfurt 13 years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, Labyrinth of Lies is a picture of Germany – and the Nazis in particular – being pulled kicking and screaming to accountability for what was allowed to happen.

Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling) has recently been appointed Public Prosecutor and, like all beginners, has to content himself in dealing with boring traffic infractions. When a journalist, Thomas Gnielka (André Szymanski), causes a ruckus in the courthouse, Radmann pricks up his ears. A friend of Gnielka’s has identified a teacher as a former Auschwitz guard, but no one is interested in prosecuting him. Against the will of his immediate superior, Radmann begins to examine the case and lands in a web of repression and denial, but also of idealisation.

At that time “Auschwitz” was a word that some people had never heard of and others wanted to forget as quickly as possible. Only the Prosecutor, General Fritz Bauer (Gert Voss), encourages Radmann’s curiosity. He, himself, has long wanted to bring the crimes committed in Auschwitz to the public’s attention, but lacks the legal means for a prosecution. When Radmann and Gnielka find documents that point the finger at the perpetrators, Bauer immediately recognises how explosive these are and officially entrusts all further investigations to Radmann. The young prosecutor devotes himself with utmost commitment to his new task and is resolved to find out what really happened. He questions witnesses, combs through files, secures evidence and allows himself to be drawn into the case to such an extent that he is blind to everything else. That includes the love of his life, Marlene Wondrak (Friederike Becht).

So, it is that Labyrinth of Lies tells the tale of a devoted public prosecutor who sets out on an uncompromising search for the truth. While struggling against every imaginable obstacle, he comes up against his own limits as well as those of a system that makes it easier to forget than to remember. The film takes a look at the lifestyle of the “economic miracle” years – the era of petticoats and rock ‘n roll, in which people wanted to forget the past and instead look to the future.It relates the story of a handful of men and women who, despite massive social and political opposition, dedicated themselves to making sure that Germany did not flee from what took place. These people wanted Germany to be the first country in the world to prosecute its own war criminals in a court of law. “Contrary to the Nuremberg trials, the Auschwitz trials are unknown to most people today,” says producer Jakob Claussen. It took more than five years from the initial preliminary hearings to the opening of the main proceedings at the first Auschwitz trial. The origins of this movie also took about that long.

The seminal idea stemmed from the scriptwriter Elisabeth Bartel. She had read about the topic in a newspaper and approached a producer, Sabine Lamby, who, in turn, immediately recognised the potential of this story, which had never been told on film.  The two began developing the script and then brought on board Lamby’s business partner, Giulio Ricciarelli, as co-author and director. Bartel and Ricciarelli decided to tell a fictitious story, albeit against the background of actual events and with the inclusion of notable people who lived at that time.

While the film understandably has gravitas, I believe it would have benefited if the real story had been told with only real people. As it is, I am not convinced the dramatic devices used – intermingling the key characters’ personal lives with their professional responsibilities – carry as much weight as they could have. I was left asking whether the filmmakers were merely doing this in the name of so-called “entertainment”. Nevertheless, nothing prepared me for the “shock” of finding out that so soon after the atrocities committed by the Germans during the Second World War many young countrymen and women were totally oblivious to the goings on. Pouring over large volumes of material and interrogating people to get to the truth is a frequently used technique in film, most recently in the Oscar winner Spotlight. That is one of the mainstays of Labyrinth of Lies.

 

Alexander Fehling is earnest as the intrepid prosecutor Radmann, although his exemplification of his failure to cope – which includes hitting the bottle – is not quite as convincing. The picture doesn’t have the same impact as the best of breed Holocaust offerings, such as Son of Saul, Schindler’s List, Life if Beautiful, The Pianist or The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Some prudent pruning wouldn’t have gone astray either and would not have affected the story. As I suggested, Labyrinth of Lies has clout, but not as much as it could have had. It scores a 6½ out of 10.

Director: Guilio Ricciarelli
Cast: Alexander Fehling, André Szymanski, Friederike Becht
Release Date: 31 March 2016
Rating: M

Alex First