Kinology has come on board the highly anticipated next film of Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,” based on Olivier Guez’s bestselling novel. Kinology is at Cannes to present the project to buyers.
Set to start shooting in a few weeks, the film is being produced by Charles Gillibert at CG Cinema (“Annette”) and Ilya Stewart at Hype Studios (“Tchaikovsky’s Wife”). It stars August Diehl as Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor who found refuge in South America at the end of WWII and was never captured. Mengele died in Brazil in 1979 without having been judged for his crimes. The daring movie will focus on Mengele’s fugitive years, spanning from Paraguay to the Brazilian jungle, and will be told from the man’s point of view.
Guez’s novel won the prestigious Renaudot Prize in 2017 in France and was published in more than 30 countries. The film will mark Serebrennikov‘s follow up to his upcoming movie “Limonov,” as well as “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” and “Leto,” both of which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and 2018.
“The events of the Second World War are most often represented in art in the name of heroes whose motivations we understand very clearly. They are resistance fighters, allied soldiers, anonymous people who fought against Nazism. With ‘The Disappearance,’ we reverse the point of view: we try to examine the darkest side of the human soul, from a perspective that has never been seen before. It is a film thought, written, and made from the very subjectivity of those who made the whole world tremble with fear,” said Serebrennikov.
“Who exactly were these men? Is there anything that distinguishes them, could we recognize them in an anonymous crowd, or are they just like us? Can we even try to understand them? I believe this character study is particularly relevant to the times we live in today, constantly on the brink of conflict, where the actions of a few can create chaos on a global scale. I also see this story of the past as a powerful cautionary tale for my contemporaries,” Serebrennikov continued. The key cast also includes Louis Hofman, Liv Lisa Fries and and Ulrich Noethen.
