(Documentary)
A Moriah Films of the Simon Wiesenthal Center production. (International sales: Cinema Management Group, West Hollywood.) Produced by Richard Trank, Marvin Hier. Co-producers, Carey Ann Strelecki, Inbal B. Lessner.
Directed by Richard Trank. Written by Trank, Marvin Hier.
With: Simon Wiesthenthal, Richard Seibel, Pauline Kreisberg, Zvi Aharoni, Peter Michael Ungers, Martin Mendelsohn, Frederick Forsyth, Rosemarie Austraat, Martin Rosen, Marvin Hier, Ben Kingsley, Hella Pick.
Narrator: Nicole Kidman.
(English, German, Hebrew, Polish dialogue)
After a generic intro to subject via interviews, docu chronologically tracks Wiesenthal's life from his 1908 birth in Ukrainian one-horse town Buczacz and encompasses his early family life. In some bios, info on subject's family can seem like padding, but it's essential info in Wiesenthal's case, as the loss of his mother, sister and 87 other relatives during the Holocaust informed the rest of his life.
A trained architect whose work still stands in the Ukraine, Wiesenthal married Cyla Muller, a girl he had known since school, in 1936. The couple were separated when the Nazis overwhelmed Eastern Europe.
Already volunteering in a camp for displaced persons in 1946, Wiesenthal began his Nazi-hunting career interviewing fellow survivors for the U.S. war crimes unit, and later continued his research independently. Wiesenthal tracked Final Solution mastermind Adolf Eichmann to Argentina in 1953, and his evidence eventually enabled Israeli agency Mossad to arrest the Nazi fugitive and brought fame as well as leads to other missing Nazis, including the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank.
Despite its inherent gravitas, docu also captures Wiesenthal's inner optimism, which neither Nazis or the world's post-WWII indifference could extinguish.
One charming anecdote relates how, forbidden by U.S. authorities to enter the Soviet zone, Wiesenthal sent friend Felix Weissburg to seek out his wife from a group of three freedom-seeking women, all claiming to be Cyla Wiesenthal. Unsure of which woman to bring back, Weissburg picked the one he would marry if he had the choice. (Wiesenthal wisecracks that his friend had to look for another wife, as this woman was already taken.)
Talking heads including friends, supporters and colleagues are periodically inserted to clarify details or to sing Wiesenthal's praises.
Having sought out Wiesenthal to research his novel "The Odessa File," author Frederick Forsyth reveals how the subsequent 1974 film indirectly lead to the capture of yet another escaped Nazi. Thesp Ben Kingsley testifies about his interactions with Wiesenthal when preparing to play him in the 1989 HBO pic "Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story."
Docu also examines in detail the Zionist uproar when Wiesenthal refused to join the witch hunt for one-time Nazi affiliate, former U.N. Secretary General and Austrian Prime Minister Kurt Waldheim. Unarticulated accusations of Wiesenthal's personal aggrandizement are countered by outlining his sources of income and attachment to a limited wardrobe and a shabby car.
Package is expertly put together, and the pace never flags. Plug for the Simon Wiesenthal Center is somewhat heavy-handed but unsurprising, given that the organization supplied coin.
Narration by Nicole Kidman is easy on the ear and unobtrusive. Soundtrack is standard TV-drama fare but stops short of hysteria.
Camera (color/B&W, 16mm/video/HD-to-35mm), Jeffrey Victor; editors, Inbal B. Lessner, Shelly Stocking; music, Lee Holdridge; sound (Dolby Digital), Mark Friedman. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale Special), Feb. 12, 2007. Running time: 106 MIN.
