Overview
- The 2025 film by exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov adapts Olivier Guez’s account of Mengele’s South American years and opened to reviews on October 23.
- Reviewers note a deliberately austere, mostly black‑and‑white style that refuses sympathy for the perpetrator and keeps emotional identification at bay.
- August Diehl’s performance is described as committed and chilling, emphasizing paranoia and unrepentant hatred rather than eliciting empathy.
- Staged 16‑mm color sequences recreating experiments appeared so authentic that some observers reportedly mistook them for archival footage, prompting ethical concerns over representation.
- The narrative concentrates on exile in the 1950s and 1970s after escape via clandestine routes, with several critics saying the film offers little new insight into Mengele’s motives.