A stylishly executed espionage thriller, this is the most commercially appealing film yet from the auteur filmmaker.

Josef Mengele was the physician and SS officer whose horrific experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz earned him the sobriquet ‘Angel of Death’.

Based on the novel by Olivier Guez “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” displays the brio and ambition characteristic of director Kirill Serebrennikov, although the film is in a markedly different mode from previous stylised exercises; notably “Leto”, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” and last year’s freewheeling biopic “Limonov”. “Disappearance” revolves around an imposing lead – sometimes subtle, sometimes a touch barnstorming – by a largely unrecognisable August Diehl.

Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily