Now Streaming: PLAN A

Remember Inglourious Basterds (2009)? Remember the penultimate climax when the American Nazi hunters bust into the movie theater where the Führer is and OBLITERATE the place? Shooting and massacring the monster himself and all the Nazis and Germans inside before blowing up the building itself? I was 18 years old when I first saw Quentin Tarantino’s campy, obviously fictionalized Nazi thriller, and I smiled and softly cheered during this moment. I wasn’t alone. The audience was raucous, hollering aloud during this massacre. What does that say about us? Were our reactions unethical? I mean, this is just a movie, of course, but the Nazis did exist. These were real people, no matter how evil they were. Is it “bad” to cheer? To cheer watching a bunch of murderers or “sympathizers” of these murderers get shot at and blown up? Plan A, another addition to the Nazi revenge subgenre, makes us question these ethics in a much more haunting, serious way. (And less bloody, I should add.)

The film, based on a true story, premiered at our 41^st Jewish Film Festival in 2021. We streamed it for one week on our digital platform, and now, a year later, it is slowly getting a national release and now available to stream everywhere. It may not be showing in Philadelphia yet, but when/if it does come, I BEG you to see it on the big screen. Movies like Plan A should only be seen in theaters. The film is gripping, gut-wrenching, and deeply perceptive in its exploration of forgiveness and revenge. Many of us still harbor irrevocable fury towards these perpetrators and their evil mustache-man of a dictator. Are we as bad as them if we have thoughts of them getting hurt? Are we “as bad as them” for thinking like that?

Ironically, Plan A’s lead actor, August Riehl, also starred in Inglourious Basterds, but in a very different role. In that movie, he played a Nazi whose testicles get…. yes, you know that scene. (Just YouTube “Michael Fassbender Inglourious Basterds scene.”) In Plan A, he plays the polar opposite: a Holocaust survivor. His character is Max, a father and husband desperately searching for his wife and child. The year is 1945, and Max, recently liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau, has returned to Germany. His vile neighbors have moved into his home and confessed they sold his family out to the Nazis.

“Just because the war is over doesn’t mean we can’t kill Jews anymore,” says his neighbor after whacking him in the head with a gun.

Max walks to the ruins of his synagogue in town. The night is dark and quiet, whispers of other survivors heard in the distance who dwell inside the dilapidated buildings. The Nazis didn’t win, but there is nothing to celebrate. The survivors are lost and traumatized, many of whom have abandoned any confidence of a future. The directors of Plan A, brothers Doron and Yoav Paz, are masters of production design. It’s no surprise that they previously directed an Israeli horror movie, Jeruzalem (2015), another film about a town in physical disarray. You see photos of post-Holocaust, European cities, and they really do look like they’re set photos from an apocalyptic movie.

Pretty early on into the film, Max discovers the Jewish Brigade of the British Army is in town. Their leader, Michael (Michael Aloni), has made it his mission to export all survivors to Mandatory Palestine, as well as locate any Nazi or Nazi collaborators in town and murder them. His leadership skills clash with his spiteful attitude. He, like many other soldiers, feels immense guilt about what happened, confessing that he had only heard rumors about these so-called “death camps.” In one scene, after interrogating a German, he promises his survival in exchange for Nazi addresses, only to reverse his decision and execute the man.

In a brilliant, nuanced performance, Diehl shows Max’s growing animosity towards the people who put him through hell. He skips the bus departing for Palestine – the “haven” for the survivors, as Michael puts it – and agrees to participate with the Jewish Brigade. One night, in the woods, after a botched interrogation, Max is introduced to Nakam, a group of Jewish fighters, led by Abba Kovener (Ishai Golan). “Nakam” is the biblical word for “vengeance,” which pretty much sums up what the fighters want. Unlike the Brigade, however, Nakam doesn’t just want to kill Nazis or war criminals. They want to kill civilians, anyone who knew about the atrocities but didn’t step in to stop it.

“An eye for an eye, six million for six million,” says Anna (Sylvia Hoeks), a stoic member of the group whose visage is so devasted, it’s like she can’t believe she survived the Shoah.

For Michael, Nakam is trouble. He fears that they are planning something drastic and dangerous in Nuremberg. This isn’t good, he believes, because it could thwart any chance of Palestine becoming a Jewish state. Curious, Max agrees to go undercover and infiltrate Nakam’s plans. This takes him to the city where he ends up getting a job restoring the town’s water supply. He forms a close bond with Anna, a sensitive woman whose screaming nightmares keep everyone awake at night. He secretly meets up with Michael to report back on news. It’s not long before he discovers Abba and the members’ top-secret mission: to poison the town’s water and kill everyone. Men. Women. Children. If they’re German, they deserve to die. That’s the objective.

Does Max want this? Well, he appears torn. A part of him knows that this plan is too over-the-top, but he’s also spiteful, and he has every right to be. It’s not enough that he had to deal with Nazis for so long. Now he has to deal with lingering antisemitism in his country. That’s what makes Plan A such an intriguing thriller, the way it shows Europe exactly after the camps were liberated. I remember reviewing a film earlier this year, The Survivor (2022), also a true story, set in the US upon the end of World War II. It also shows the ignorance and hidden antisemitism behind so many non-Jews. Growing up and learning about the Holocaust, I was mistaken in believing that everyone – universally speaking, EVERYONE – was forgiving and gutted when those newsreels came out reporting the stacks of cadavers in the camps. Oh no. As Max acknowledges, there are still antisemites in town. The only difference is they don’t wear Nazi outfits.

Thanks to its stellar performances, Plan A revels in its characters’ contradicting thoughts and wishes. Anna, similar to Max, knows this plan might not be a good idea. Will it make the pain go away? There is powerful scene in the film where the two of them attend a movie theater, only to leave pre-feature after seeing a newsreel of shocking footage from the liberated camps. They go to another room, triggered and dismayed, and have intense sex. It’s not “passion” or love. It’s pain. These two have survived the unimaginable. Will having sex, punching a wall, or just screaming into a pillow really help them heal?

By the end, Plan A truly does shake you. You are conflicted, just like these characters. Is the “an eye for an eye” theory a palpable rationalization? Watching the movie, it made me think about one of my favorite memoirs, Unbroken, about WWII veteran Louis Zamperini. He was taken captive and tortured in multiple Japanese camps. After his rescue, he agreed he would make it his life’s mission to locate the general who beat him on a daily basis and kill him. Suddenly, one day, he just changed his mind. It’s like his brain just couldn’t fathom perpetrating, let alone witnessing, physical violence. He just knew he couldn’t do it. It ended up being the best decision of his life. If Nakam murders a town of Germans, would it feel good? Or would the satisfaction be transient? Would the trauma just come back in?

I noted at the beginning that this is based on a true story. Nakam did exist, as well as Abba Kovener, but did their mission succeed? Well, I’m not saying, of course! (And don’t Google what happened either.) Plan A is both popcorn entertainment and a philosophical tale of right vs. wrong. Pretend that you are a Holocaust survivor. You have a chance to kill Nazis. What would YOU do?

Plan A is now available to rent on ChaiFlicks, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu.

By Matthew Bussy, Program Director of PJFM