Plan A: Review

10th October 2022

Max (August Diehl) is a Jewish man who lost his wife and child during the atrocities carried out in Germany during World War Two. After the war ended, he got a job in Nuremberg in their water supply department, but the emotional turmoil that still runs through and he finds an opportunity to put those feelings to rest as he finds the blueprints for the facility.

Handing it over to a Jewish resistance group, Max puts a plan in motion to poison Nuremberg’s water supply and seek revenge for his people.

Based on a true story, Plan A tells the tale of the events that led up to the plot to avenge those lost in the Holocaust shortly after the war. Directed and written by Doron and Yoav Paz who are Israeli, it takes the story of the shared experiences of antisemitism and attempts to tell an untold story and do it justice.

However, it feels like in an attempt to pay respect to the real people and events, the story doesn’t have the weight and gravitas that such a story could have been given from a more objective view. Also, the conflicts of morality and the effects of trauma aren’t explored in a way that they could have been.

To tell a true story and to put it on the screen may give the filmmakers a certain artistic licence when putting across their point of view on the story. It could have been done to pull on the heartstrings of the audience and depending on the filmmaker, feeling like a tribute to those whose lives were taken away. It could also have been an emotional manipulative film made to garner awards.

However, there’s also something to be said about telling the story in an understated way and that is how Plan A plays out. Unfortunately, it seems that by doing so and being as respectful as possible to those who were lost, it feels like the weight of the story was lost with it.

There doesn’t need to be a thrilling adventure packed with characters building up to an impactful ending, but because this isn’t the way the story is told it may long be forgotten.

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