Wakolda
Starring: Alex Brendemuhl, Diego Peretti, Florencia Bado
Director: Lucia Puenzo
Rating: 3/5
Wakolda - The German Doctor to you and me - has been playing on the festival circuit this year and it is now on the programme at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
Wakolda tells the story of an Argentine family who lived with Josef Mengele without knowing his true identity, and of a girl who fell in love with one of the biggest criminals of all times.
Puenzo made her directorial debut back in 2007 with XXY, but Wakolda is her first feature film since The Fish Child five years ago; she has made a couple of shorts since them.
She is a director who has never been afraid to tackle delicate and controversial subjects, and she does so again with this new film.
The subject matter is certainly something that will trigger a lot of interest and yet, it is not the gripping and emotional film that you are expecting or it could be - which is a major shame.
There is no doubt that the interest that the doctor takes in the family’s 12-year-old daughter is chilling to the bone, and will make your skin crawl more than any horror film.
The ambiguity of the doctor’s interest does create some tension, but the early suspense that Puenzo had created isn’t seen through to the end of the film.
Alex Brendemuhl is chilling as the doctor as his obsession for genetic purity and perfection awakened after spending time with the family that took him in.
Despite the fact that this doctor is a Third Reich ‘Angel of Death’ this movie is perhaps not as dark as it could have been. Puenzo chooses not to explore the perverse ‘perfection’ side of Nazism in too much depth in this film; I think that this would have given the film a darker tone and a bigger and more effective emotional punch.
Puenzo is more interested in the idea of a community hiding a Nazi war criminal and how to evade capture. While that is interesting, this story does run out of steam towards the end.