It is 1958. Fledgling lawyer Johann Radmann hears of an instance that took place some time in the past during WWII, and of which he has little knowledge. Seems a man complained about abuse of some sort during detention in the war, but the issue was dropped due to lack of interest. Radmann, however, is interested and decides to investigate. He is soon overwhelmed by a mountain of facts in which few people are interested or talk about. War Crimes is the topic, and Radmann can't find anyone among contemporaries who has even heard of Auschwitz.
"Labyrinth Of Lies" is a story about truth, not distorted but obscured or ignored. Life in post-war Germany did not include talk or discussion of wartime concentration camps, since it was old news and the war is over; everyone was doing what they had to do. Radmann is astonished at what he finds and at the magnitude of the atrocity, and whom it encompasses, and at the resistance he encounters.
The film is well-done in all respects and told in a semi-documentary aspect that lacks a sanguine feel, as a storyteller detached from the gruesome material. Nevertheless, it is an absorbing film and revelatory for those of us who have wondered how life transpired in Germany after the war. It is the second German-language Holocaust-related film I have seen recently, and personally I thought "Phoenix" was a better picture.
"Labyrinth Of Lies" is a story about truth, not distorted but obscured or ignored. Life in post-war Germany did not include talk or discussion of wartime concentration camps, since it was old news and the war is over; everyone was doing what they had to do. Radmann is astonished at what he finds and at the magnitude of the atrocity, and whom it encompasses, and at the resistance he encounters.
The film is well-done in all respects and told in a semi-documentary aspect that lacks a sanguine feel, as a storyteller detached from the gruesome material. Nevertheless, it is an absorbing film and revelatory for those of us who have wondered how life transpired in Germany after the war. It is the second German-language Holocaust-related film I have seen recently, and personally I thought "Phoenix" was a better picture.