THE GERMAN DOCTOR/ WOLKODIA
Argentina, 2013, 93 minutes, Colour.
Alex Brendemuhl, Natalia Oreiro, Diego Peretti, Elena Roger, Florencia Bado.
Directed by Lucia Puenzo.
The German Doctor was directed by Lucia Puenzo who has made a number of short films, as well as XXY and The Fish Girl. She is the daughter of director Luis Puenzo, who made The Official Story, Old Gringo and The Plague.
This is a story from Argentina with Nazi doctor, arch-criminal, Josef Mengele and his escape to Argentina after the war and his living concealed there for several decades. The screenplay postulates his being in Patagonia, becoming friendly with a family, living in their hotel, continuing to do his experiments, on the little girl of the family, on one of the twins born during his time there.
The important thing is that he seems a sympathetic character, friendly, the little girl liking him, the family inviting him to stay in the hotel. He also continues with his studies and his experiments – becoming more and more sinister as he treats the little girl for increase in her height and treats the twins, making one the measure of improvement of the other.
The family is presented sympathetically, travelling to open her hotel, their customers, sending their children to school, the German school where they are not liked, with the German National Anthem being sung – the next generation of the escaped Nazis.
It is also the time of the taking of Adolf Eichmann, increased Israeli interest in Latin America, an agent tracking Mengele.
However, he escapes and continues his life in Latin America for almost two more decades, it seems that he died in 1979. (Of interest, the movie, The Boys from Brazil, a speculative story by Ira Levin has Mengele still functioning in Latin America, trying to make young boys clones of Hitler and the Nazis, while he is pursued by the Simon Wiesenthal character, led by Laurence Olivier.)
1. Audience knowledge of Joseph Mengele, interest in him, his work for the Nazis, his escape to South America, his continuing his career there?
2. Mengele as a doctor, his experiments, his notes, inhumanity? Scientific knowledge, working with twins, working with one as a base for investigations for the life of the other? His continuing this work in Argentina, the families, with children, incognito?
3. The setting in the 1960s, Patagonia, the landscapes, desert and mountains, the lake? The homes and huts? The hotel, lavish? The musical score?
4. Argentina by 1960, the Nazis who migrated there, cover-ups, protection? The continuing their lives?
5. The opening with Eva, Enzo, Lilith and the rest of the family? Their moving to the town, packing up? The encounter with the German, his friendliness, talking with Lilith, playing with the doll? His following the family as they drove through Patagonia? His going into the town?
6. The family, characters, Enzo and his work with the dolls? Eva and her pregnancy? Opening up the hotel? Lilith, her age, short height? The German and his interest in Lilith, experiments, diagrams, documents, increasing her height over a short time? His interest in Eva and her pregnancy? His moving into the hotel and living there? His seeming pleasantness? The fact that Mengele himself was able to conceal himself and mingle with people for so long?
7. The theme of the dolls, Lilith and her doll, its name and the title of the film, needing a heart, the German repairing it? Her father and his work with the dolls, the commissions?
8. The children going to the school, their not being liked, understanding German but not speaking it? The singing of the German national anthem? The Nazis escaping to Argentina, the next generation? The staff?
9. Nora, her investigations, Israeli background, getting information and communicating it? The meetings with the German, and his suspicions? Examination of his documents? His threatening her? Her being murdered?
10. Lilith, growing up, liking the German, wary? Her brother, the other members of the family? Enzo and his growing suspicions?
11. The birth of the twins, the doctor and his interventions, experiments with the twins, one improving, the other not? The effect on Inso?
12. The German, his allies, the flying boats, the warnings, his escape?
13. The final information about Mengele and his eventually being arrested in Brazil?
