The Disappearance of Josef Mengele (Das Verschwinden des Josef Mengele)

As the camp doctor at Auschwitz, Josef Mengele came to be known as the Angel of Death, a result of his cruel pseudoscientific experiments on prisoners. After World War II, he vanished to South America, aided by a network of former SS members. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, based on the acclaimed 2017 bestseller of the same name, traces Mengele's life on the run until his death. For those questioning why such a man warrants a film, look no further than director and screenwriter Kirill Serebrennikov. One of the most outspoken critical voices among Russian artists, Serebrennikov has been living in exile in Berlin since the invasion of Ukraine. Honoured this year in Cannes, he brings the non-fiction novel to the screen in the same feverish, visceral style of The Student (2016), Leto (FFG2018), and Petrov's Flu (2021) and - as with Leto - opts for stark black-and-white cinematography. Equally unafraid of challenges is lead actor August Diehl, who graced Film Fest Gent's campaign artwork back in 2020.