Details

Release year: 2002

Storyline

During WWII SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to extermination camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana helps him in the difficult mission to inform the world.

Top credits

Directors

Costa-Gavras

Writers

Cast

Ulrich Tukur — Kurt Gerstein
Mathieu Kassovitz — Riccardo Fontana
Ulrich Mühe — Doctor
Michel Duchaussoy — Cardinal

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Did you know

• Stefan Lux was a Jewish Czech journalist, who committed suicide in the general assembly room of the League of Nations during its session on July 3, 1936, to alert the world on the perils of German anti-Semitism. After shouting "C'est le dernier coup" ("This is the final blow") he shot himself with a revolver.

• The Vatican did not give permission to shoot the film in its buildings. After searching for a location of adequate size for the scenes taking place in the Vatican, Costa-Gavras finally chose Europe's largest building, the Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului) in Bucharest, Romania. Some of the outdoor scenes were shot in Mogosoaia Palace, approximately 14 kilometers northwest of Bucharest.

• The film is based on the very successful and controversial play "Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel" ["The Deputy, a Christian tragedy"] by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, which started a lot of heated discussions, arguments and even diplomatic tensions after its premiere at West-Berlin's "Freie Volksbühne" on February 20, 1963. Within the same year, the play was produced at additional theatres in West-Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, France and Great Britain. "The Deputy" has been translated into more than 20 languages and the play has been produced in more than 80 cities worldwide since. It is now regarded as a classic of German post-war theatre.