et in 1958 in Frankfurt, the fairly well-crafted German film Labyrinth of Lies (Im Labyrinth des Schweigens), directed by Giulio Riciarelli and nominated in the Foreign Film category at the Oscars, is a sharp, meticulous take on postwar Germany that focuses on an often-forgotten historical period, meaning from the late 1950s onwards, a time during which a large part of the country refused to acknowledge its war crimes, despite the revelations that surfaced during the Nuremberg trials.
A few minutes into the film, a journalist presses charges against an ex-Auschwitz commander, whom he recognized by chance on the street and who is now a school teacher. Soon enough, Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling), a young prosecutor eager to deal with more than parking tickets, starts an inquiry to unveil hidden truths but his efforts are thwarted by different political and bureaucratic procedures. Not surprisingly, Germany at large is not exactly keen on facing its hideous mass murders. There are even lots of people who claim they have no idea what Auschwitz was.
So Labyrinth of Lies exposes not only the conspiracy of government branches to cover up Nazi crimes after World War II, but that of prominent German institutions as well. And it also shows how this period came to an end. In real life, fierce public prosecutor Fritz Bauer was the one who played a key role in starting the trials in which some infamous murderers were condemned. As for Johann Radmann, the protagonist of Riciarelli’s film, he’s a composite created out of Fritz Bauer and two other prosecutors who participated in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
As far as a cinematic work, Riciarelli’s debut feature has some assets as well as some drawbacks, but for the most part it overcomes the biggest hindrances from which it suffers. It’s definitely not the work of an auteur seeking to innovate film aesthetics, but it’s a reasonably well-shot genre piece — even if by the book.
It plays as a political thriller, a personal drama and a historical account, and while it doesn’t equally succeed in these three veins, it’s not a total disaster in any of them. Well, perhaps the subplot involving a romance, which aims at creating a more nuanced character, ends up being quite irrelevant. But as a thriller, it has a somewhat tense pulse and enough twists and turns to keep you busy trying to figure out what the next thing to happen will be.
More importantly perhaps, as a historical drama it’s well narrated, detailed and exhaustive. Most viewers are unlikely to be that familiar with many sides of the complex history of postwar Germany and in this regard it will prove to be useful and moderately enlightening. One thing is for sure: it’s not your boring period piece, a history lesson that might make you doze.
And just like many of the lines from the dialogue carry a good deal of the film’s ideas and sound too perfectly elaborated and too well-written instead of spoken — real-life people don’t usually know how to say what they mean exactly the way they mean it — this is somehow made up for by the overall decent acting from the entire cast, including some exceptional moments that highlight the best parts of Labyrinth of Lies.
Production notes
Labyrinth of Lies (Im Labyrinth des Schweigens, 2014). Directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. Written by Elisabeth Bartel, Giulio Ricciarelli. With: Alexander Fehling, Andre Szymanski, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch, Hansi Jochmann, Johann von Buelow, Robert Hunger-Buehler, Lukas Miko, Gert Voss. Running time: 122 minutes.
