'Labyrinth Of Lies' A Review

Labyrinth Of Lies is a German historical drama about a younger public prosecutor, Johann Radmann(Alexander Fehling), in 1958 who takes an interest in former Auschwitz guards and officers who have resumed their normal lives without consequence. Radmann and others of his generation are mostly ignorant of the concentration camp atrocities due to a society wide unspoken agreement of willful amnesia and inaction. Radmann investigates the horrors perpetrated at Auschwitz through survivor interviews and American kept files. He gradually discovers how complicit numerous "upstanding" citizens were, begins issuing warrants and preparing for a large scale murder trial.

The film has a slow methodical pace with an undercurrent of menace and foreboding. We see and experience Radmann's gradual psychic transformation and the emotional toil it takes. The film doesn't spend time on the particulars of the Holocaust but on the emotional journey of its protagonist and because it is done so well we get a sense of both the personal and national impact of the tragedy and its subsequent passive cover up. Fehling puts in an incredible performance shouldering the entire burden of the film, by telling the story of Radmann with such clarity and weight we get the story of post-war Germany with finesse and heart.

Visually the film lacks inventiveness and has a relatively pedestrian look but it doesn't detract given the freshness and energy of the story. The ensemble is stacked with every individual, regardless of screen time or lines, giving three dimensional evocative performances. Especially Radmann's secretary Hansi Jochmann who's billed simply as "Sekretärin". She runs a clinic in non-verbal acting.

Remarkably acted, meticulously plotted, perfectly paced. A film that smolders but never flames.

See It.