WILD WILD EAST
(The Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF) runs September 10-20 and HtN has boots on the ground covering all the best indie films they have to offer. Check out Chris Reeds’s Wild Wild East movie review from the fest! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
Neither World War II nor the Holocaust are strangers to cinema; both have been the frequent subject of many a filmmaker. Indeed, one might even feel it difficult to come up with any new treatment of either, no matter their horrific and genocidal details. But in his latest movie, Wild Wild East, Polish director Jan Holoubek (Doppelganger. The Double) shows that there are still creative depths to plumb, crafting a taut—and ultimately devastating—thriller with more plot twists and turns than the best whodunits. It’s riveting throughout, all the way to its killer of a conclusion.
The time is 1943, the place a small village in Poland, Małe Zalesie, to which a German official, Martin Wolff, has come searching for a cache of gold purportedly left by a since-departed (or since-exterminated) Jewish family in the care of their lawyer, a local Pole. With his sharp leather jacket and his fascist blonde haircut, he is the epitome of a Nazi, all brisk efficiency and imperious command. Everyone understands what he is after, but not how much he knows.
And so begins an initially slow-burn of a mystery in which the shameful truth of the war and the disappearance of the Jews fester like malignant tumors. A cast of corrupt characters, each vying for the title of most venal, compete for a treasure that no one deserves. But then, suddenly, everything changes, thanks to a narrative development that truly surprises.
Itay Tiran (Spider in the Web) stars as Wolff, oozing officious authority as he demands answers from wary townspeople. He is matched by a talented ensemble of multilingual supporting actors who switch between German and Polish (and Ukrainian) as the situation requires. Together, they lurch into ever worse and worse trouble.
Beyond its status as a superb example of suspense, Wild Wild East is also an important reminder of humanity’s bottomless capacity for evil (and also for good). At a time where white supremacy has once again reared its ugly head, we need this kind of urgent reminder of the kind of cruelty in which Nazis specialized. Look around you: by other names, such folks are back, some of them distressingly in power. They never really left, just retreated for a while.
Greed drives the world, and from it flows the worst kind of behavior. Here, the perils of war heighten the stakes, making everything and everyone even more depraved than usual. Fortunately, the movie’s brilliant intrigue and great performances transform what might otherwise prove unbearable into a continuously engaging drama where our allegiances—always tenuous—shift from one moment to the next. Apparently, there is still plenty to say about this well-worn topic. Holoubek is just the man to do it.
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
