Das Verschwinden des Josef Mengele

Shortly after the end of World War II, Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor of Auschwitz, manages to escape from Germany. With the help of SS officers and the support of wealthy South American families, he goes into hiding in Argentina—until the hunt for him begins there as well. From Buenos Aires to Paraguay, and deep into the Brazilian jungle, the “Angel of Death” orchestrates his methodical disappearance, evading any form of trial. But when his son tracks him down, Mengele is finally confronted with a past he can no longer deny. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele is a psychologically intense, visually hypnotic portrait of one of the most elusive war criminals, who managed to evade the authorities until the day of his death. Director Kirill Serebrennikov (Leto, Petrov’s Flu) adapts Olivier Guez’s award-winning novel into a gripping cat-and-mouse game between memory, oblivion, guilt, and denial. The film is both an uncompromising exposure of the darkest depths of the human soul and a mirror to our unsettling present times. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it stood out thanks to August Diehl’s outstanding performance as the relentless Nazi executioner.