Costa-Gavras' Amen. / Der Stellvertreter (2002), based on Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 play Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel / The Deputy, a Christian tragedy / The Representative, delves into human responsibility and complicity in modern society, in this case during the Nazi period in Europe. In a sense, everyone in it is trapped in an ongoing life-crisis, forced to make primal existential decisions. Those finding themselves at the decision-point are not only an SS officer involved in perpetrating the Holocaust but also a Jesuit priest, Protestant and Catholic leaders, members of neutral powers and policymakers in the United States and Britain. It is grim and thought-provoking. In 2011, one must also wonder how Twitter and Facebook would have changed the socio-political dynamics of the 1930s and 1940s.
Costa-Gavras seems to be suggesting that we know so very little about anything, even things we thought we did. Here, that which is called "World War II" or "The Second World War" or "The Great Patriotic War:" When did it begin? Where? How? Why? Did it end? What was it about? Who suffered? Who didn't? Who gained? Who became rich because of it? How many countries in Europe managed to remain neutral, and how? The answer to the latter question, so far as I know, comprises a list of predominantly Protestant, Catholic and Islamic nations: Vatican City, Irish Free State, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Sweden and, until 1945, Turkey. In Amen., Costa-Gavras inspires us to think about these things and learn more, a laudable goal.
Today's Rune: Partnership.
2 comments:
You know the thing about the neutral (supposedly) countries i wonder about is did they secretly feed the Reich while they "owned " Europe. There is just to much we will never know historically.
But in the end I think the fair assumption is that all of them acted out of their own self interest. The Irish Free State is a fine example of that idea.
I bet I'd enjoy this. As Mark says, somethings we'll never know but we do know that there were a lot more complex issues involved than the ones we often claim. The same can be said of the American Civil WAr.
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