Somehow this wonderful Argentine historical drama slipped by me unnoticed so I’m so happy I finally caught up with it. I had few expectations, which lately I like going into a film (every Oscar-bound film today seems so over-hyped) and loved The German Doctor.
Lucía Puenzo, writer/director
Directed, produced and written by Lucía Puenzo based on her novel Wakolda, the film stars the wonderful Àlex Brendemühl as a meticulously dressed, charming ex-Nazi doctor who follows an Argentine family and tries to earn their trust.
Puenzo set her film in 1960 and shows this German doctor during his exile in South America. Having adopted a new identity, he moves into a Patagonian hotel (in a gorgeous mountainous setting) run by German-speaking Eva and her husband Enzo, and becomes particularly interested in the family’s daughter Lilith, who lags behind her classmates on the growth charts. Can’t say much more without giving too much away but Puenzo brings us a wonderfully restrained, fairly-drawn depiction of the story with a delicious tension that never eases up and Alex Brendemuhl offers up a perfect German doctor, charming and handsome with a terrifying undercurrent.
Alex Brendemuhl plays the doctor
With all the talk in Hollywood about the lack of woman directors, hopefully Lucia Puenzo will be making a lot more wonderful films.
