The Ten Best Films of 2014: #9

#9


For her gripping "The German Doctor," writer-director Lucía Puenzo imagines Nazi doctor Josef Mengele's interlude in Argentina, as seen through the eyes of a smart and sensitive twelve-year-old girl. A strong sense of time and place informs the film, with the game of international hide-and-seek between Mengele and the Mossad agents chasing him only as sophisticated as the setting allows; at times, there's an almost hidden-in-plain-sight overtness to his presence. Alex Brendemühl brings quiet menace to the doctor in one of the best performances of the first half of the year.