The Debt (2011 film)
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''The Debt'' is a 2010 remake of the 2007 Israeli thriller film '' Ha-Hov'', directed by John Madden from a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and
Peter Straughan Peter Straughan (born 1968) is a British playwright, screenwriter and author, based in the north-east of England. He was writer-in-residence at Newcastle's Live Theatre Company. Whilst there, Live staged his plays, ''Bones'' and ''Noir''. Both o ...
. It stars
Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
, Sam Worthington,
Jessica Chastain Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and producer. Known for primarily starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. ''Time'' ...
, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson,
Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...
and Jesper Christensen. Although ready for release in July 2010, and scheduled for a December 2010 release in the United States, the film only toured various film festivals during the autumn of 2010 and spring of 2011. It didn't see a general release until it was released in France on 15 June 2011, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia in July 2011, and the United States, Canada and India on 31 August 2011.


Plot

In 1997, Rachel (Mirren) is honoured by her daughter Sarah (
Romi Aboulafia Romi Aboulafia ( he, רומי אבולעפיה) is an Israeli actress, screenwriter and filmmaker. Early life Aboulafia was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a Sephardic Jewish family. She started acting at the age of six and was cast for a lead rol ...
) during a release party in Tel Aviv for Sarah's book, based on the account Rachel, Stefan and David gave of the events in 1965. Concurrently, David (Hinds) is escorted from his apartment by an Israeli government agent for a debriefing. David recognises Stefan (Wilkinson) waiting in another vehicle and unable to face their lie, he commits suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming truck. In 1965, young
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 ...
agent Rachel Singer (Chastain) on her first field assignment, arrives in
East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
to meet with more experienced agents David Peretz (Worthington) and Stefan Gold (Csokas). Their mission is to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Christensen) – infamously known as "The Surgeon of
Birkenau 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 ...
" for his medical experiments on Jews during World War II – and bring him to justice in Israel. Rachel and David present themselves as a married couple from Argentina, and Rachel becomes a patient at Vogel's obstetrics and gynaecology clinic. Rachel plans to have a gynecological exam at Vogel’s clinic. In order to present herself as a married woman who recently had intercourse, she wants to sleep with David but does not explain why. Although the two have feelings for each other, David resists her overture. Instead, she sleeps with Stefan. At the appointment and during an uncomfortable pelvic exam, Rachel injects Vogel with a sedative and convinces the nurse to believe that he has suffered a heart attack. Stefan and David arrive dressed as paramedics and take off with the unconscious Vogel in an ambulance. They attempt to leave by train, but Vogel awakens and sounds the horn of the van where he is being held, alerting guards to their presence. When gunfire erupts, David saves the compromised Rachel. The Mossad agents have no choice but to bring Vogel to their apartment and plan a new extraction. David and Stefan take turns monitoring and feeding Vogel while leaving him chained to the wall heater. During his shift, David becomes violently enraged by Vogel's Nazi view that Jews have many weaknesses, such as selfishness, making them easily subdued. David smashes a bowl over Vogel's head and starts repeatedly beating him. Rachel runs in and tries to stop him but David unknowingly hits her while still hitting Vogel. David is finally restrained and pulled out of the room by Stefan. Rachel goes into the bathroom to wash the blood off her face, leaving Vogel alone. Vogel surreptitiously grabs a shard of the broken bowl and starts cutting through his bonds. When Rachel returns to the room Vogel attacks her with the shard, throwing her against the wall and knocking her unconscious. Vogel opens the front door, runs down the stairs and escapes. Stefan, panicking and hoping to avoid humiliation, makes up a story that Rachel shot and killed Vogel when he tried to escape, and they were able to get rid of the body. Rachel insists they cannot lie about what happened but David, who is blaming himself for Vogel escaping, agrees to lie. Stefan pushes Rachel to reluctantly agree. When Rachel discovers she is pregnant, she marries Stefan, the father of her child, although she loves David. In the following years, the agents are venerated as national heroes for their roles in the mission. A generation later, at a dinner celebrating their daughter's book release, Stefan takes Rachel aside to set a meeting to discuss new information he has obtained. Later, at David's flat, Stefan provides evidence that Vogel is in a mental hospital in Ukraine, and is soon scheduled to be interviewed by a local journalist. Stefan claims David killed himself because he was a coward. Rachel refutes Stefan's explanation, recalling an encounter with David a day before his suicide, in which he revealed his shame about the lie and disclosed that he had spent years unsuccessfully searching the world for Vogel so he could finally be brought to justice. He was further disheartened by Rachel's admission that she would continue propagating the lie to protect those closest to her, particularly her daughter. Nevertheless, Rachel finally feels compelled to travel to Kyiv. She investigates the journalist's lead and is able to travel to the asylum. She reaches the room just minutes before the journalist and discovers the man claiming to be Vogel is not him. Describing the encounter to Stefan over the phone, Rachel declares she will not continue to lie about the 1965 mission. She leaves a note for the journalist and suddenly spots the real Vogel among the other patients and follows him to an isolated area of the hospital. After a confrontation in which Vogel stabs her twice with scissors, Rachel kills Vogel by plunging a poisoned syringe into his back. Later Rachel's note is discovered and read by the journalist. It describes the truth of the mission, ready to be relayed to the world.


Cast

*
Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
as Rachel Singer in 1997 **
Jessica Chastain Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and producer. Known for primarily starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. ''Time'' ...
as Rachel Singer in 1965 and 1970 * Ciarán Hinds as David Peretz in 1997 ** Sam Worthington as David Peretz in 1965 and 1970 * Tom Wilkinson as Stefan Gold in 1997 **
Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...
as Stefan Gold in 1965 and 1970 * Jesper Christensen as Dieter Vogel *
Romi Aboulafia Romi Aboulafia ( he, רומי אבולעפיה) is an Israeli actress, screenwriter and filmmaker. Early life Aboulafia was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a Sephardic Jewish family. She started acting at the age of six and was cast for a lead rol ...
as Sarah Gold *
Yonatan Uziel Yonatan Uziel ( he, יונתן עוזיאל; born March 26, 1975) is an Israeli actor and model best known for appearing in '' Prisoners of War'' and ''Hostages''. Early life and education Uziel was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Tel Aviv. Hi ...
as Mossad Agent


Production

Israeli papers reported that Mirren was "immersing herself" in studies of the Hebrew language, Jewish history and Holocaust writings, including the life of
Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a history of the Jews in Austria, Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He surviv ...
, while spending time in Israel in 2009 to shoot scenes in the film. "My character is carrying the memory, anger and passion of the Holocaust," she said.


Release

The film premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival in France on 4 September 2010, followed by
2010 Toronto International Film Festival The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented '' Score: A Hockey Musical'', a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. '' La ...
on 14 September 2010, and various other festivals during the autumn of 2010 and spring of 2011. The film was ready to be released already in early July 2010, when it was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification, and
Miramax Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a leadi ...
had originally announced plans to release it in the United States on December 29, 2010, and it quickly began to appear on lists of possible 2011 Oscar contenders. However, the film was one of two that had their official opening dates delayed until 2011 because of the transfer of Miramax from its previous owner Disney and the new owner Filmyard. The film saw its first general release in France on 15 June 2011, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia in July 2011, and United States, Canada and India on 31 August 2011.


Critical reception

The film has received generally positive response among critics and viewers. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that of the critics gave the film a positive review, with an average critical score of . The site's consensus states, "Its time-shifting narrative creates distracting casting problems, but ultimately, ''The Debt'' is a smart, well-acted entry in a genre that could use more like it." Metacritic, a review aggregator which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 65 based on 37 reviews. Victoria Alexander of
Films in Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
said of the film, "The twists are shocking and mesmerizing. A high wire, intelligent espionage thriller. It is one of the best movies of 2011."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four: Richard Middleton-Kaplan cited the film as a recent example of a work playing to the myth of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust, because the Mossad agents do not effectively rebut the doctor's claims:


Notes


References


External links

* *
''The Debt''
at The Numbers * {{DEFAULTSORT:Debt, The 2010 films 2010s spy films 2010 thriller drama films British thriller drama films American thriller drama films Films about Jews and Judaism Films about the Mossad Films about Nazi hunters American remakes of Israeli films Films directed by John Madden Films set in Berlin Films set in 1965 Films set in 1970 Films set in 1997 Films shot in Budapest Films shot in Israel Films shot in London Films with screenplays by Jane Goldman Films with screenplays by Matthew Vaughn Films scored by Thomas Newman Universal Pictures films Films produced by Matthew Vaughn 2010 drama films Films set in East Germany Films set in Ukraine Films set in Kyiv 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s British films