This week at the movies: The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

A man on the run from his past: Kirill Serebrennikov's haunting drama "The Disappearance of Josef Mengele" follows Nazi physician Josef Mengele — the infamous "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz — across South America after World War II, from Argentina to Paraguay and Brazil. Based on the bestelling novel by Olivier Guez, the film, shot in atmospheric black and white, traces the stations of a hidden life shaped by isolation an paranoia. August Diehl embodies Mengele with disturbing precision — a man who conducted selections and brutal experiments at Auschwitz and, even after the war, clings rigidly to his fascist ideology. He is supported by Friederike Becht as Mengele's second wife, and Burghart Klaußner as his domineering father, among others. Director Serebrennikov, known for his uncompromising stance toward authoritarian regimes and his outspoken opposition to Putin and the war against Ukraine, stages this disappearance as both a psychological and physical disintegration. The film's rigorous visual design — with only one particularly harrowing flashback shown in color — confronts the audience with questions of memory and guilt. Without any trace of psychological explanation, the film offers an unflinching look at the persistence of fascist mindsets and networks after 1945. "The Disappearance of Josef Mengele" premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.