At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
George MacKay
Hugh Legat
Jannis Niewöhner
Paul von Hartman
Jeremy Irons
Neville Chamberlain
Robert Bathurst
Sir Nevile Henderson
Jessica Brown Findlay
Pamela Legat
August Diehl
Franz Sauer
Sandra Hüller
Helen Winter
Alex Jennings
Sir Horace Wilson
Ulrich Matthes
Adolf Hitler
Liv Lisa Fries
Lena
Abigail Cruttenden
Anne Chamberlain
Nicholas Farrell
Sir Alexander Cadogan
Martin Kiefer
Heinrich Himmler
Mark Lewis Jones
Sir Osmund Cleverly
Anjli Mohindra
Joan Menzies
Paul-Ernest Flanagan
Foreman Frank Wright
Nick Wymer
Maitre D'
Raphael Sowole
Cecil Syers
Ludwig Simon
Café Man Jakob
Nellie Thalbach
Café Woman Charlotte
Hannes Wegener
Captain Eric Kordt
Aidan Hennessey
Arthur Legat
Tara Nome Doyle
Singer
Rainer Sellien
Hans Oster
Helen Clyro
Miss Watson
Nicholas Shaw
Parliamentary Aide James Berwick
Richard Dillane
Colonel Menzies
Robert Bathurst
Sir Neville Henderson
Marcel Kowalewski
Young Man Brauhaus Alexander
Antonije Stankovic
Young Man Bauhaus Konrad
Marc Limpach
Dr. Paul Schmidt
Oscar Hoppe
SS Officer Schubert
Domenico Fortunato
Benito Mussolini
Stéphane Boucher
Édouard Daladier
Leni Erceg
Little Girl Inge
Margit Bendokat
Nurse Ida
Pierre Bergman
Cheering Downing St Crowd (uncredited)
Jean-Pascal Heynemand
Ritz Diner (uncredited)
Director
Christian Schwochow
Adaptation, Screenplay
Ben Power
Novel
Robert Harris
January 25, 2022
8
It’s a bright looking setting for such a dark time in history in Munich: The Edge of war - Everything looks colourful and stylish.
Nevertheless Schwochow keeps the tension up right from the beginning. It’s a classic case of the audience knowing more than the characters. Helping with the tension is keeping the Germans speaking German.
The film has an impending doom about it. It's Titanic meets a world war with lots of people being wrong in their assurances of the future. This is fine, they're saying. The tension between the two leads Legat and von Hartmann reflects the tensions between the countries yet somehow in reverse. They are trying to reconcile while their countries irrevocably turn to war. The script is good enough not just to make these two characters overly simple.
McKay finds himself again being a messenger right back in the wars (after after he starred in 1917) with the world being on the verge of WWII. He just must be made of the right stuff - or at least the running stuff. Irons thrives as the miscalculating Chamberlain PM, while the film shows him to be harshly treated by history. Everyone seems anxious as if there was a war on or something.
The theme of personal need versus national duty comes up as well as the sacrifices required come in opposite directions when some are sacrificing for the country and others are against it. The film serves as inspiration and a warning for future skirmishes.
Viewers can be glad the filmmakers resisted the temptation of calling this Hitler’s Translator. It’s an effective international thriller since the audience know the ending and its accompanying tragedy.