Labyrinth of Lies

“Powerfully documented, carefully written, forcefully directed and skillfully acted.” – The Observer

Johann Radmann is an ambitious young lawyer in 1958 Frankfurt, keen to move out of traffic court and do something more meaningful. When he discovers that many former Nazis have quietly reintegrated into German society, he begins seeking them out, building cases against them. It’s a tougher fight than he anticipates, as he experiences pushback from a country that simply wants to forget.

A massive hit at the Toronto Film Festival, Labyrinth of Lies is a semi-fictionalised depiction of the 1963 – 1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Through Radmann (himself based on four different prosecutors), the film skillfully captures the disbelief and frustration many young Germans felt at their country’s history, and follows those who fought the system to make the country face up to what it was. Stars Alexander Fehling (Inglorious Basterds, Homeland) and Friederike Becht (Hannah Arendt, The Reader). The film is Germany’s official entry for the 2016 Foreign Language Oscar.