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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The German Doctor (Wakolda) (2013)

The German Doctor (Wakolda) (2013)

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Released 12-Nov-2014

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Trailer-x 4 for other Madman releases
Theatrical Trailer-Film trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2013
Running Time 90:01
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Lucía Puenzo
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Alex Brendemuhl
Natalia Oreiro
Diego Peretti
Florencia Bado
Elena Roger
Guillermo Pfening
Case Alpha-Transparent
RPI ? Music Dariel Tarrab
Andres Goldstein


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Patagonia, 1960. On a remote desert road a family consisting of Enzo (Diego Peretti), his pregnant wife Eva (Natalia Oreiro) and their three children including twelve year old daughter Lilith (Florencia Bado), who is small for her age, meet a German man who calls himself Helmut Gregor (Alex Brendemuhl). The family is travelling across the country to reopen a hotel on a lake near Bariloche that had previously been owned and operated by Eva’s parents before they died. A few days later Helmut arrives at the hotel and asks to stay. He is charming, has scientific knowledge and money and the family agrees. Helmut shows an interest in genetics and is fascinated by Lilith, who he offers to treat to help her grow. Enzo will not allow any treatment, believing it is nothing but an experiment, but as Lilith is being taunted at school and Eva trust’s Helmut she agrees without telling her husband.

     Bariloche, like many places in South America, has a strong German community, including a German school. Accordingly Helmut does not stand out, although he seems to be revered by a number of the Germans including Klaus (Guillermo Pfening), a teacher at the German school. However Nora (Elena Roger), another teacher at the school has her suspicions about Helmut’s true identity, which the audience shares as we have seen his notebooks which include details of experiments with humans. Matters come to a head during a snowstorm when Eva gives birth to premature twins.

     The German Doctor (original title Wakolda) is based upon actual events during the hunting of the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, who in Auschwitz conducted experiments, especially with twins, into genetics and race purity. After the war he escaped to South America and was never caught although, as a caption at the end of the film tells us, he was supposedly drowned in 1979. The film The German Doctor itself is based upon the book by Lucia Puenzo, who produced, wrote the screenplay and directed the film.

     There is no doubting the good intentions with which The German Doctor was made by Puenzo, but the film’s pace is languid and nothing much really happens despite the chilling undertones of menace. As a mystery the film does not work; there is no secret about the doctor’s true identity and the character played by Elena Roger as the teacher trying to identify him for the Israelis is very underwritten. Nor does the film work as a character study; Mengele is too cold and calculating and the conflict between him and Diego Peretti as the father quickly is submerged behind other plotlines. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing story and Alex Brendemuhl is excellent in the main role, displaying charm, sophistication and good manners but with a chilling, barely hidden obsession to continue to experiment on those who are different. Natalia Oreiro and Florencia Bado, as people who know something is amiss but who nevertheless trust the German doctor, are also very good.

     The German Doctor won prizes for best film and best director at the 2013 Argentina Academy Awards and was Argentina’s nomination for best foreign film at the US Academy Awards, but did not make the cut. Nevertheless, with some good acting and beautiful locations, including a pristine lake and snow-covered mountains, The German Doctor is worth checking out.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The German Doctor is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The print is sharp and detailed and the snowy locations look great. The colours have that nice digital glossy look with a colour palate that is predominately grey and blue, as befitting a Patagonian winter. Blacks and shadow detail are fine, brightness and contrast consistent and skin tones natural.

     Other than slight ghosting with some movement, and shimmer in the end titles, artefacts and marks are absent.

    English subtitles are available in a yellow font. They are clear and easy to read and I did not notice any spelling or grammatical errors.

     The layer chance at 53:56 created a slight pause in the middle of a scene.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Spanish / German Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps.

     Dialogue was clear and centred. There was not a lot of surround use, nor was it needed, but the surrounds and rears were used appropriately for music, engines, weather effects such as rain and wind, and voices. The sub-woofer was not overdone but added bass to thunder, engines and music.

     The original score was by Dariel Tarrab and Andres Goldstein with additional music by Swing, Laura Zisman and The Dirty Three, which featured Nick Cave. The music was thus diverse but it was effective!

     Lip synchronisation fine.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Theatrical Trailer (1:55)

Madman Propaganda

     Trailers for Barbara (2:04), Suskind (2:05), The Third Half (2:08) and Homeland (2:16).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     There is not currently a Region 2 UK release The German Doctor and the Region 1 US version is listed on Amazon as being in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and without extras. I cannot find a review that confirms the ratio, but in any case there seems no reason to go past our Region 4 release.

Summary

     The pace of The German Doctor is languid and not a lot happens but with some good acting and beautiful locations the film is interesting enough and worth checking out.

     The video and audio are fine. Trailers are the only extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Monday, December 15, 2014
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE