“Circle of Deceit” (Die Faelschung)

As a part of the NAU International Film Series Spring 2013: Asia: Identity and Agency, “Circle of Deceit” (Die Faelschung)

Germany 1981, Dir. Volker Schlöndorff

Shot on location in the still smoldering streets of Beirut, “Circle of Deceit” is a film of riveting tension and passionate eloquence. Director Volker Schloendorff (“The Legend of Rita”, “The Ogre”, “The Tin Drum”) combines war film verve, documentary immediacy, and a superb cast to yield a violent yet character-rich film that’s both politically charged and personally moving. Grateful for a respite from his imploding marriage, Hamburg newspaperman Georg (Bruno Ganz) arrives in civil war-torn Beirut to chronicle the bloody Lebanese war. Inside a shell-pitted hotel, Georg and his photographer colleague Hoffman (Jerzy Skolimowski) join a cynical international coterie of competitive fellow journalists. Outside, they take their lives in their own hands, dodging both Christian and Palestinian bullets and conducting interviews that are always just a trigger pull away from becoming executions. When Georg’s affair with a beautiful German ex-pat widow (Hanna Schygulla) evolves into something more than an indulgence, Beirut’s bloody whirlpool of brutality threatens to claim Georg’s neutrality and his civilized self-control. Without taking sides or pulling punches, Schloendorff’s meticulous direction renders both the lethal chaos of urban warfare and the moral tug-of-war of modern Mid-East politics with equally sensitive precision. Probing an ethical minefield of journalism, exploitation, war, and murder, “Circle of Deceit” is hauntingly compassionate, shockingly realistic, and "a superior film in every respect." (Leonard Maltin, “Movie & Video Guide”) (108 min.)