Photo cou rtesy of BETA- Fi lm Through A Jewish Lens In 'After the Truth," Dr. Jos ef gets his day in court. `After The Truth' The ethical dilemma of defending pure evil is explored in After the Truth, a German film that looks at the fictional courtroom trial of Josef Mengele, the infamous 'Angel of Death" of the Auschwitz concen- tration camp. While doing research on Mengele, young, success- ful German attorney Peter Rohm receives a Nazi uni- form in the mail that begins a chain of events that lead to Mengele's surrender to German authorities. Mengele, now in his 80s and cancer-stricken, wants to defend his "work" -- medical experiments that resulted in the deaths of 300,000 people, mostly Jews -- saying he did them as a medical researcher and entirely in the interest of mankind. Mengele is defended by Rohm through the slow- paced yet thought-provoking trial. Underlying ques- tions arise: "Can a man like Mengele really be defended in court and who would be willing to do it?" "It's a look at how in the world it happened, and how Josef Mengele, the most horrible of the killers, developed from a physician into a mass murderer," said Chris Riley, who co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Kathy "I think what's disturbing to people is we tried to present the historical Mengele, not a car- toon cutout, but the real person who could explain to you in a rational way why he did what he di& 'It's chilling because there's a certain perverse logic to it As horrible as his deeds were, Mengele is a human being like all of us. That's not to excuse him at all but to indict the rest of us, and say, `What are we capable of?'" After the Truth had a theatrical run in Germany in September 1999, and was nominated for best European feature at the Brussels Film Festival this year German actor Gotz George- won the best actor award for his portrayal of the Nazi doctor. — Harry Kirsbaum Staff Writer The subtitled film After the Truth will be shown 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 2. Screenwriters Christopher and Kathleen Riley will speak about the film and its production. 4/21 2000 86 OF FAITH & FLICKS from page 85 the older people. I recently took the film to Brazil, where the primary language is Portuguese, and watched how, with some subtitles, the audi- ence laughed in all the right places." As festival planners searched for this year's films, they previewed 50 separate works. When it came down to the final number, the three were in complete agreement. "Our mission was to include films that portrayed Jewish themes from around the world," explained Chessler, who found Shtick, Shmaltz and Shtereotypes very entertaining. "We had hard choices because there are so many good films available. We have a lot of films that haven't been shown in the United States, and we've invited directors and writers so that audiences can interact with the filmmakers. "Most festivals don't start out as big as we have, and we're very glad to have Daniel Petrie with us on opening day to talk about his film, The Assistant, which is based on the Bernard Malamud novel," Chessler says. Petrie, who worked many years to get the rights to the novel, has direct- ed many well-known feature films, including Cocoon: The Return with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, Fort Apache, The Bronx with Paul Newman and Resurrection with Ellen Burstyn and Sam Shepard. His TV credits include Inherit the Wind with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott, Monday After the Miracle with Roma Downey and Bill Campbell, Seasons of Love with Peter Strauss and Rachel Ward and Sybil with Sally Field and Joanne Woodward. "The Assistant says to an audience and people everywhere that there is nobility in forgiveness," says Petrie about the film that portrays Jews during the Great Depression. "To me, this is a story about a man who committed an unforgivable crime and was forgiven. I think the act of forgiveness is salutary for the for- givee and also for the forgiver." Petrie, committed to films that carry a moral stance, will speak and answer questions about the film and all that happened in the 30 years since he wrote the first screenplay of The Assistant, ultimately produced by a film company in Canada, where he was raised. The director has present- ed it at dozens of film festivals from Los Angeles to Chicago. "The vehicle for this moral look at the world is through the eyes of a The film The Poet and the Con is a profound and powerful memoir about a poet and his criminal uncle who bonded with each other during a time of crisis in their lives. Two years before filming began in 1991, Eric Trules, 41, a Los Angeles poet, dancer and perfor- mance artist, fought off Hodgkin's disease while his favorite uncle, Harvey Rosenberg, 55, went through a 12-step recovery program for drug and alcohol addiction and a 38- year life of crime. Though Eric's can- cer went into remis- sion, his soul remained malignant with a long- held inner anger David Trules, filmmaker, toward his family and and Harvey Rosenberg in "The Poet and the Con." society. And while Uncle Harvey may have beaten his addictions and criminal way of life — becoming a successful crisis interventionist — he skipped the recovery step about making amends for a most abhorrent criminal deed. Thus, the issue of their incomplete spiritual recov- eries remained unresolved: Would the poet and the con be given a second chance to do the right thing? The pair, feeling somewhat cocky, challenged their Jewish family's motives and sincerity at Eric's 44th birthday party held around a back-yard picnic table. Eric expressed romantic notions about crime — theo- rizing that his 'outlaw" creative thrust as a poet and clown was akin to his con uncles own rebellion against the norms of family and society. A spirited discussion unfolded, with Eric's late mother Roz as the standout. Her digression on whether criminality is genetic is as memorable a mono- logue as Joe Pesci's "Do You Think I'm Funny?" from Goodftllas. With her energy and sincerity, Eric's mother silenced the poet and stole the stage from the con. The second half of the film then undergoes a shocking turn of events as reality overtakes art, expos- ing flaws in both the poet and con's first attempts at recovery. Given a "second chance," filmmaker Truks and his uncle muster the tearful courage to make things right. What results is poetic justice that pummels the emotions, touching cosmic realities, universal and Jewish. The Poet and the Con will generate much thought and discussion long after it is experience& — David Sachs Staff Writer The Poet and the Con will be presented 8 p.m. Monday, May 1. Director-producer-screenwriter- poet Eric Trules will address the audience.