''Labyrinth of Lies'' (german: Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) is a 2014 German
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Giulio Ricciarelli
Giulio Ricciarelli (born 2 August 1965 in Milan) is an Italian-German actor, director and film producer.
Career
After his training at the Munich Otto-Falckenberg-Schule (1985–1987), Ricciarelli began his career on stage. Thus he was engaged ...
. Based on true events, it was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...
. It was selected as the German submission for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
at the
88th Academy Awards
The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Du ...
, making the December shortlist of nine films, but it was not nominated.
Plot
In 1958, Johann Radmann is a young and idealistic public prosecutor who takes an interest in the case of Charles Schulz, a former
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
extermination camp commander who is now teaching at a school in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. Radmann is determined to bring Schulz to justice, but finds his efforts frustrated because of the many former Nazis who are serving in government and looking out for one another.
Radmann's boss, the prosecutor-general
Fritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ...
, puts him in charge of investigating former workers at the Auschwitz camp. The U.S. occupation forces give him access to their files, and he discovers there were 8,000 workers. He goes after
, who lives in Argentina, but flies back to West Germany to visit his family. After the authorities block Radmann's attempt to issue an arrest warrant, his boss warns him off and orders him to concentrate on lower-profile suspects. The department invites
Mossad
Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...
agents to visit, and shares its information with them. As a result,
kaddish
Kaddish or Qaddish or Qadish ( arc, קדיש "holy") is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different version ...
, the Jewish mourning prayer, for a friend's two daughters who were killed there, he goes back to work for the West German state prosecutor. The film ends with the opening of the trial of several hundred former Auschwitz workers.
Johannes Krisch
Johannes Krisch (born 1966) is an Austrian actor. He has appeared in more than forty films since 1987.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
1966 births
Living people
Austrian male film actors
{{Austria-actor-stub ...
as Simon Kirsch
*
Friederike Becht
Friederike Becht (born 14 October 1986) is a German actress.
Life
Becht was born in Bad Bergzabern, and studied acting at the Berlin University of the Arts. She worked as an actor at the Ernst Deutsches Theater Hamburg, the Schauspielhaus Z ...
as Marlene
*
Hansi Jochmann
Hansi Jochmann (born 19 February 1953) is a German actress. She appeared in more than seventy films since 1960.
She is the German dubbing voice of Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress ...
as Secretary
*
Johann von Bülow
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
as Otto Haller
*
Gert Voss
Gert Voss (10 October 1941 – 13 July 2014) was a German actor. He was known for his roles in ''Labyrinth of Lies'' (2014), ''Sometime in August'' (2009) and ' (1987). He was member of the ensemble of the Burgtheater, and a ''Kammerschauspie ...
as
Fritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ...
*
Robert Hunger-Bühler
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
as Walter Friedberg
*
André Szymanski
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...
as
Thomas Gnielka
Thomas Gnielka (1928 – January 1965) was a West German journalist.
Aged 15, he was one of a group of senior boys from his Berlin secondary school to be conscripted for war service. The boys were sent to a base near Auschwitz. Given a number ...
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 82%, based on 79 reviews, and an average rating of 6.54/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Labyrinth of Lies'' artfully blends fact with well-intentioned fiction to offer a thought-provoking look at how the lessons of history can be easily lost or forgotten." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Accolades
At 2014's Les Arcs European Cinema Festival, the film received a Special Mention from the Jury, and won the Prix du Public (audience award).
List of submissions to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of submissions to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award ...
*
List of German submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Germany has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since the creation of the award in 1956. The award is handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length m ...