Mission in Hell ( Mission en enfer )

Mission in Hell (DVD) (*)

~~$39.99~~ $33.97

Original Title: Mission en enfer
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Subtitles )
Russian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Russian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Switzerland ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 2003 and produced in:
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Frédéric Gonseth

Written By:
Frédéric Gonseth

Actors:
Thérèse Bühler ..... Herself
Paula Sonntag ..... Herself
Elsy Trösch-Eichenberger ..... Herself
Simone von Wurstemberg ..... Herself
Charles Waldsburger ..... Himself
Gerhard Weber ..... Himself

Synopsis:

To this day, the old man is unable to forget the eyes of the Soviet prisoner of war he met in Smolensk in 1942, in those days when he was still a young idealistic adventure-seeking doctor. In front of Frédéric Gonseth's camera, he recalls how he volunteered to take part in a Swiss medical mission on the Eastern Front. At the time, his comrades and himself (about two hundred and fifty doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers) believed they were taking part in a humanitarian operation organised by the Red Cross. Some of the members of the expedition only realise during the shooting of the film to what extent they have been the tool of purely political motives, of a diplomatic attempt to ease the increasing pressure exerted by Germany. The film is based upon the reserved but lucid accounts of the mission's participants, whose diaries are also partly revealed to the public. Photographs and remarkable archive footage bring back the indescribable horror of the war, in an often almost unbearable depiction of human barbarity. The film also deals with the question of responsibility. Why have those nightmarish visions never been mentioned to this day? Was the Swiss government aware of what was happening on the front? MISSION EN ENFER is an amazingly well documented enquiry that takes us to the ancient battlefields of the furthermost bounds of Europe, revealing a page of Swiss history that is weighed down with contradictions and compromises.

From 1941 onwards 250 Swiss medical doctors and nurses on a humaniatrian mission of the Swiss Red Cross on the Eastern Front are integrated for several months into the Wehrmacht against their will. They return with unbearable emotions and capital testemonies on the genocide of Soviet war prisoners and Jews on the Eastern Front. Switzerland refuses to listen to them.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 06 October, 2010.