THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOSEF MENGELE: August Diehl Cast in Nazi Biopic

August Diehl cast in The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

August Diehl is set to portray the notorious Nazi fugitive physician in The Disappearance of Josef Mengele.  

German actor August Diehl has become something of a specialist with focus on German and Austrian roles. But this does not imply that he is a character actor. His roles have been too diversified for that.

For example, consider his performance in in Terrance Malik’s A Hidden Life. He portrayed Franz Jägerstätter, the devout Austrian peasant farmer who lost his life to his convictions when he refused to fight for the Nazis. Or perhaps when he played Adolf Burger in The Counterfeiter, a Jewish forger coerced by the Nazis to participate in Operation Bernhard, which would undermine the British economy with fake pound notes.

His current role, however, presents a special challenge. By a combination of luck and foresight, starting with an Allied snafu regarding his identity, Mengele evaded capture since the end of the War. He did not disappear so much as stay one step ahead of Mossad agents and cover his tracks adequately enough. This, and the fact that the underfunded Israeli agency’s resources were spread too thin.

Director Kirill Serebennikov’s entry here narrows down the period from 1959 onward, when he migrated from Paraguay to Brazil. His wife, Irene, did not accompany him and divorced him after ten years of marriage. Rolf Mengele met with his father alive on only two occasions; once as a 12-year-old at a Swiss ski resort, and again in 1977 in São Paolo. When his father passed, Rolf traveled to Brazil and identified the body. Rumors reporting Josef seen now and again afterward were put to rest when those same remains confirmed Mengele’s identify through DNA testing.

As for the director himself, Kirill Serebennikov is nothing less than a maverick, both as an activist and an artist. Though drawn to the performing arts as a child in the Soviet Union, he graduated with honors as a physicist but wasted no time working in television. He later distinguished himself with his efforts in theatre, and in 1998 emerged as a film director. Concurrently, Kirill staged ballets and operas at home and abroad, and considered top in his field until his arrest and conviction in 2017. The de jure charge was misappropriation of funds, but his de facto ‘crime’ was publicly opposing Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. He lost his livelihood and sentenced to house arrest (but still worked diligently on his own projects), which lasted until 2022 when he emigrated to Berlin.

August Diehl, apart from his own merits and his collaboration with Serebennikov, finds another special advantage in terms of the source work. Olivier Guez, a French reporter who specializes in geopolitics, will adapt his own prize-winning biographical novel of the same name. Of interest is that Guez also authored the screenplay of the German film, The People vs. Fritz Bauer, based on reportage concerning the pursuit and capture of Adolf Eichmann, and in particular the intrigues behind the story. This film garnered international acclaim, winning a number of awards across the globe.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele is currently in pre-production, but the concerted efforts of film professionals on board now promise a triumph worth waiting for.

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