Labyrinth of Lies(2015)

Name: Labyrinth of Lies
Director: Giulio Ricciarelli
Genre: Drama, History
Released: Sep 30, 2015
Cast: André Szymanski, Alexander Fehling, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch, Johann von Bülow

Sony Pictures Classics

R
Rated R for a scene of sexuality
2h 4m
- Drama
- History

Release Date: Sep 30, 2015

A story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.

Official Website

Release Details

Original Release | Sep 30, 2015 | Limited

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$22,101
Total US & Canada:
$794,452
Total International
$3,780,304
Total Worldwide:
$4,574,756

Current Showtimes

orround

Wed Aug 26
Thu Aug 27
Fri Aug 28
Sat Aug 29
Sun Aug 30
Mon Aug 31
Tue Sep 1

Director & Top Cast

Giulio Ricciarelli
Director

André Szymanski
Thomas Gnielka

Alexander Fehling
Johann Radmann

Friederike Becht
Marlene Wondrak

Johannes Krisch
Simon Kirsch

Johann von Bülow
Staatsanwalt Haller

Robert Hunger-Bühler

Oberstaatsanwalt Friedberg

Hansi Jochmann

Schmittchen

Lukas Miko

Hermann Langbein

Gert Voss

Generalstaatsanwalt Fritz Bauer

Tim Williams

Major Parker

Mathis Reinhardt

BKA Mann Fischer

Hartmut Volle

Lehrer Alois Schulz

Werner Wölbern

Hans Lichter

Timo Dierkes

Peter Mertens

Michael Schernthaner

Alter BKA Mann

Susanne Schäfer

Mutter von Johann

Robert Mika

Josef Bichinsky

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Germany

Language: German,English,Hebrew,Latin

Summaries

Plot Summary

In 1958, Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling) is a young and idealistic public prosecutor who takes an interest in the case of Charles Schulz, a former Auschwitz extermination camp commander who is now teaching at a school in Frankfurt am Main. 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 (Labyrinth of Lies (2014)), 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 Josef Mengele, 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 agents to visit, and shares its information with them. As a result, Adolf Eichmann is kidnapped and spirited away to Israel where he is tried, convicted and executed for his crimes. Having pulled off this coup, Israel declines to pursue Mengele.Meanwhile, Radmann allows himself to be seduced by Marlene (Friederike Becht), a seamstress who, benefiting from Radmann's connections, starts a business as a dress designer. Radmann reaches a crisis when he discovers his own father was in the Nazi party. When he tells Marlene that her father too was in the party, she ends their relationship. By the end of the film, however, there is a chance she will have him back. He resigns his official post and goes to work for an industrialist. There he is again confronted with the dilemma: do what is right; or do what the system requires you to do?When he finds this means working with a colleague who had defended a former Nazi he was investigating, Radmann walks out. His idealism has suffered from hard encounters with the real world; at every turn, the "system" wants compliance, but he wants justice. He comes to understand that the only thing that can ease the horror is not justice, but attention to the lives and stories of those who suffered. Growing out of the simplistic right/wrong moralizing, he comes to understand life as more complex, and seeks to repair all the damage, large and small, he inflicted in his zeal.After going to Auschwitz to say kaddish, 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.

Storyline

The year is 1958. The war has been over for thirteen years and the Federal Republic of Germany is not only recovering but even booming. But where are the Nazis? Who has ever heard of the death camps? It looks as if everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds in this land of milk and honey - At least, until the day journalist Thomas Gnielka reports on the recognition by a German-Jewish artist of a local schoolteacher, a former guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp - At least, until Johann Radmann, a young prosecutor, decides to investigate the case - Nobody knows it yet but this is the dawn of a new era. Even if the road to awareness will be long and rocky. — Guy Bellinger In late-1950s Frankfurt--in the aftermath of the shocking Nuremberg trials, thirteen long years after the end of WWII, and with Germany eager to return to normalcy--the idealistic and ambitious young public prosecutor, Johann Radmann, daringly accepts a case about a Waffen SS guard in Auschwitz. Now--as more than 8,000 people worked at the nightmarish death camp, and with the infamous war criminal, Josef Mengele , enjoying a tranquil life in Argentina--the righteous attorney undertakes the herculean task to unearth evidence in the mounds of dusty files at the U.S. Army Document Center. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, workers, neighbours, and fathers, almost everybody has a skeleton in the closet. What will it take to find the truth in the labyrinth of silence? — Nick Riganas