Amen Movie Review 2002

Costa-Gavras dramatizes a Holocaust story with a somewhat heavy hand. SS. Lt. Kurt Gerstein (Tukur) is a chemist who uses prussic acid Zyklon B for fumigating camp barracks. Sent to a Polish concentration camp, he witnesses the deaths of Jewish prisoners by the gas. Appalled, Gerstein rishes reprisals by informing various church leaders, although no one is willing to speak out until he reaches the young Italian priest, Father Riccardo Fontana (Kassovitz), who has family ties to Pope Pius XII (Iures). As head of the the Hygiene Institute, the SS expects Gerstein to continue to eliminate vermin of all kinds while Father Fontana heads to the Vatican in the hopes of getting the Pope to expose the genocide. An adaptation of Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 play, "The Deputy."

Distribution

Kino International, 333 W. 39th St., Ste. 503, New York, NY 10018, Phone: (212)629-6880, Toll-free: 800-562-3330, Fax: (212)714-0871, Email: contact@kino.com, URL: http://www.kino.com

Available on DVD
Running time 130 minutes.
Originally from French.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Adapted from a Play, The Holocaust, Nuns & Priests, Nazis & Other Paramilitary Slugs

Screenplay

Constantin Costa-Gavras, Jean-Claude Grumberg

Cast

Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, Marcel Iures, Ulrich Muhe, Michel Duchaussoy, Ion Caramitru

Cinematography

Patrick Blossier

Director

Constantin Costa-Gavras

Music

Armand Amar

Other

Pierre Gamet, Dominique Gaborieau, Yannick Kergoat, Maria Miu, Edith Vesperini, Ari Hantke

Producer

Claude Berri, Renn Productions, TF-1 Films, KC Medien, Canal Plus, Kino International