After the Truth Press Coverage

"A dazzling command of the medium of film. Glues us to the screen. Even the quiet moments are heart-pounding and filled with tension. This is one terrific movie!"

David Magidson, artistic director, Detroit Jewish Film Festival

"Adapted from a screenplay by American writers Christopher Riley and Kathleen Riley (which no U.S producers were willing to film), 'AFTER THE TRUTH' so impressed Goetz George that he helped finance the film to the tune of one million marks; Kai Wiesinger was also enthusiastic about the material and waived his usual fee in order to aid production of the picture."

The New York Times

Read the entire New York Times article.

"AFTER THE TRUTH is big, gripping, exciting celluloid where each scene, each image contributes to the important whole. A small step for mankind, but a giant leap for the German cinema."

Germany’s Journal Frankfurt

"Riveting… Anchored by Goetz George’s chilling, authentic performance as Mengele, AFTER THE TRUTH disturbs and provokes in equal measure. You won’t soon forget it."

Toronto Jewish Film Festival Official Guide

"Pressing still-sensitive buttons on home turf and throughout the world, 'After the Truth' is a slickly lensed, atmospheric courtroom drama with a cheeky premise: What if Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's Angel of Death, were alive and came back to Germany to defend himself in court? A gripping and often surprisingly moving slice of entertainment."

Variety

"Remarkable for its clarity and construction. There has hardly been a German film in past decades that has touched in such exemplary fashion the post-Holocaust sensitivity of Germans."

Germany’s Die Welt

"Harrowing courtroom drama, written by Americans but made by Germans, brings Joseph Mengele back to life and to justice… Utterly engrossing, provocative and impeccably acted."

Detroit Free Press

"See it, even if it hurts!"

German Film Union

"An exciting courtroom thriller with brilliant performances and guaranteed to lead to controversial discussion."

Germany’s Focus Magazine

2000 Detroit Jewish Film Festival:

After the Truth was selected by festival organizers as their Yom Hashoah presentation.

"This story asks a number of very important questions and answers them with a dazzling command of the medium of film. The canny filmmakers have put it all into a courtroom drama/thriller format that glues us to the screen. Even the quiet moments are heart-pounding and filled with tension. This is one terrific movie!"

David Magidson, artistic director, Detroit Jewish Film Festival

"In this masterful new German film we see the Holocaust recalled from Mengele’s point of view as well as the testimony of those who witnessed his ‘choosing’ of hundreds of thousands for death or medical experimentation. This will change your life."

Official Guide, Detroit Jewish Film Festival

2000 Toronto Jewish Film Festival:

"Riveting drama. A fast-paced thriller/courtroom drama, After the Truth forces the viewer into the role of judge and jury. Can Mengele and his reluctant German lawyer (Kai Wiesinger) mount a believable defense? Will Mengele escape justice? And what made this doctor betray his Hippocratic oath in Auschwitz? Anchored by Goetz George’s chilling, authentic performance as Mengele, AFTER THE TRUTH disturbs and provokes in equal measure. You won’t soon forget it."

Official Guide, Toronto Jewish Film Festival

2000 Jack Wolgin Jewish Film Festival (Philadelphia):

"[After the Truth] is an issue for the world. It asks the question, ‘Does Mengele deserve to be defended?’ It’s a very interesting film. We hope to get people thinking."

Eric Goldman, artistic director, Jack Wolgin Jewish Film Festival

2000 Washington, D.C., Jewish Film Festival:

"German filmmaker Roland Suso Richter’s absorbing 1999 drama ‘After the Truth’ introduces the ultimate ‘what if’ scenario for an intense political courtroom drama: What if Dr. Josef Mengele, ‘The Death Angel of Auschwitz,’ were discovered alive and put on trial in contemporary Berlin? How would an attorney even begin to construct a compelling defense for one of the most notorious practitioners of genocide during World War II?

"It is a scenario that would, in less capable hands, lend itself to exploitative treatment. Richter’s film is an intelligently conceived psychological thriller. Artfully photographed in widescreen, ‘After the Truth’ implements suspense techniques without compromising the horrifying impact of the subject matter.

"Goetz George plays the role of the death camp doctor, reputed to have died years ago, as a sort of frail Nosferatu. George’s Mengele is a weathered, decaying symbol of evil—grotesquely pathetic but devoid of the caricature that could have easily become him. ‘After the Truth,’ in grand melodramatic fashion, meticulously lays out the facts for the viewer before the secret agendas of the principals are plainly stated.

"The screening is co-sponsored by the Goethe-Institute Washington."

The Washington Diplomat

From the Jewish Film Archive Online:

After the Truth (Nichts als die Wahrheit)

In the chilling drama After the Truth, the film delivers Josef Mengele to present-day Berlin, where he is forced to stand trial for the atrocities which afforded him the title ‘Auschwitz's Angel of Death.’ Who better to defend Dr. Mengele (played by Götz George) than the man who has been obsessively writing his biography - Peter Rohm (played by Kai Wiesinger)? Mengele targets Rohm for his defense, and persuades him to take his case by isolating him and bombarding him with mind games, all the while using psychologically twisted rhetoric to ensnare him. The hard, cold Mengele then sits before the Berlin court in a specially constructed glass box, facing the incensed courtroom, while maintaining his callous presence.