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AMEN |
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Director:
Constantin Costa-Gavras
Screenplay: Constantin Costa-Gavras & Jean-Claude
Grumberg
Cast:
Kurt Gerstein: Ulrich Tukur
Riccardo Fontana: Mathieu Kassovitz
The Doctor: Ulrich Mühe
The Cardinal: Michel Duchaussoy
The Count: Fontana Ian Caramitru
The Pope: Marcel Iures
Awards: Best Original Scenario, César Awards
(2002)
Running time: 132 minutes
Year of production: France / Germany / Romania
/ U.S.A. - 2002
Rating: Not rated
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
Language: French, English and Italian
Distributor: Kino International
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“Amen
is a film of great sincerity, made the old-fashioned way.
It will bear testimony to a major event in human kind.
Ulrich Tukur is excellent as the main character.”
MonsieurCinema.com |
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Based on the
true story of SS officer Kurt Gerstein, Amen exposes
how the Catholic church and many Western European powers,
remained silent while the Nazis sent thousands of Jews to
death camps. Kurt Gerstein discovers that the Zyklon B pellets
he developed to disinfect drinking water are being used to
gas Jews. Horrified, he secretly approaches the German Protestant
church, the Swedish consulate and the Vatican in an attempt
to expose the genocide. The only one who listens to him is
Father Riccardo, a young Jesuit priest with family ties to
the Vatican. Father Riccardo rushes to Rome to speak to the
Pope, who promises to expose this horrific crime – but
he does nothing. Meanwhile, Gerstein does what he can to slow
down the mass killings. Faced with the urgency of exposing
the massacre, Father Riccardo requests a meeting for Gerstein
and the Pope. The Pope refuses just as the SS begin to deport
Roman Jews. Unsuccessful, Father Riccardo attaches a Star
of David to his habit and joins a death camp-bound train.
Asked towards the end of the war to help arrange a safe haven
in the Vatican for SS war criminals, Riccardo refuses and
dies in the crematoria. Despite his noble efforts to expose
the death camp horrors, Gerstein is charged as a war criminal
and is soon after found dead in his cell.
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| PHOTO Kino
International |
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