Labyrinth of Lies

Alexander Fehling gives a good performance as Johann, a young German lawyer attempting to bring Nazi war criminals to justice in the early ‘60s. Director Giulio Ricciarelli's film depicts a Germany in denial, with many people oblivious to the crimes committed in Auschwitz during the war. Johann, a composite character of actual lawyers who worked on the case, goes through a series of revelations, some of them very personal, as he investigates the likes of Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann. The movie succumbs to some formulaic romantic elements, and a visit to Auschwitz is actually quite odd, but it retains its power thanks to Fehling and an occasionally strong script. Elements of the film are actually very surprising, and it's interesting to see a film on this subject told from the German perspective. After the war, many Nazis roamed Germany in plain sight. It took many years for the country to start punishing their own.