Moloch (film)

Plot

During the spring of 1942, a few months before the notorious Battle of Stalingrad, Adolf Hitler (Leonid Mozgovoy) retires to his secluded Berghof Retreat nestled on a remote hilltop, within Berchtesgaden in Bavaria to unite with his long-time female companion Eva Braun (Yelena Rufanova). At the residence, Braun spends her spare time with trivial pursuits such as whimsically dancing in the nude, humming to military style marching band music, and rummaging through Hitler's personal belongings. Later, Braun is thrilled to learn that her beloved "Adi", as she affectionately calls him, will be joining her for a visit. Hitler is accompanied by guests Joseph Goebbels (Leonid Sokol), Magda Goebbels (Yelena Spiridonova), Martin Bormann (Vladimir Bogdanov), and a priest (Anatoli Shvedersky) for conversation and playful banter.

During his stop-over, Hitler raves and rants on topics ranging from food, health, and climate change to wartime politics during interactions with his immediate personnel. After roaming through the mountainous landscape, Hitler voices triumph upon hearing of Germany's strategic victorious military sieges, as well as in a scene of political satire, he also claims to have never heard of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Towards the conclusion of Hitler's trip, Braun reminds him that no one can escape death or is infallible; trying to expose a hidden weakness within him as he embarks with his motorcade to continue Nazi Germany's military campaign.

Cast

Filming

Directed by Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov, the film is the first in Sokurov's tetralogy of power. It was succeeded by Taurus (2000), about Vladimir Lenin, The Sun (2005), involving Japanese emperor Hirohito, and Faust (2011), based on the old German legend Faust. For production, Sokurov employed Russian actors from Saint Petersburg to shoot the film, but their voices were later dubbed by German theater actors from Berlin.

Critical response

Critical reaction to the film was mixed. Among reviews, Derek Elley of Variety noted, "There are no new revelations in this portrayal of an arrogant madman and his sycophants, and though impressive at first, Sokurov's glacial treatment, with its deliberately soft-focus look, pales after a while." More enthusiastically, Jim Hoberman of The Village Voice wrote, "Moloch is lurid without being commercial. Evoking the German romantic landscape he synthesized for Mother and Son, Sokurov places his characteristic understatement at the service of borderline kitsch." Likewise, Jason Anderson of Eye Weekly gave the film a five-star rating, commenting, "Though he hopes to extract the man from the mythology, he doesn't merely humanize a figure in any conventional sense, as Downfall did to Hitler with troubling results."

Accolades

The film won four awards at the 1999 Russian Guild of Film Critics Awards, including; Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Script. At the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Best Screenplay Award. It was also chosen as Russia's official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards, but did not manage to receive a nomination.