I've seen The Boys from Brazil, I've heard of Nazis fleeing Germany post WWII and hiding out in South America, I've read about the history of it-- but for some reason, as a person of mixed Jewish descent, seeing the fact that whole compounds of ex-Nazis lived peacefully together in the mountains of Argentina, creating communities of Nazi sympathizers and continuing the regime's ideals, this was mindblowing to me. I suppose I always pictured war criminals like Dr. Josef Mengele hiding out in holes in the ground, living in fear for the rest of their lives, not travelling freely and living nearly the same way they did when the Third Reich was still in power.
Wakolda follows the Nazi "Angel of Death" through his travels in Argentina, in a fictionalized version of real events, as he intertwines with a German-sympathetic family, made up of Eva, Enzo, their two sons, and their daughter Lilith, who was born premature and is small for her age.
Mengele's true identity was perhaps meant to be a twist in the movie, as he uses an alias for most of it, but I feel it was apparent from the beginning, and didn't draw away from Puenzo's film. His obsession with the family who runs an inn where he takes up residence is chilling in this historical thriller, and the acting from both he and the child actress who play Lilith is superb as the two have a dark obsession with one another.
I've read in other reviews the opinion that the doctor's obsession with dolls was a little too on the nose-- Lilith's father Enzo is a dollmaker, and before Mengele gets involved he's making unique, dark haired, wild looking dolls that his daughter likes. Once the doctor becomes an investor, he convinces the man to change his creations to fit an Aryan standard, and we get shots of row after row of blonde, blue-eyed, perfect dolls. I was in agreement that it was a little less than subtle. But evidently, this was one the facts that Puenzo drew from real life-- Mengele, while hiding out in
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