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The Debt
Rachel Singer is a former Mossad agent who tried to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal – the Surgeon of Birkenau – in a secret Israeli mission that ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the doctor has surfaced, and Rachel must return to Eastern Europe to uncover the truth. Overwhelmed by haunting memories of her younger self and her two fellow agents, the still-celebrated heroine must relive the trauma of those events and confront the debt she has incurred.
2010 · Directed by John Madden · 113 min · Drama · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 7 frames
Tagline
Every secret comes with a price.
Plot
In 1997, Rachel Singer is honoured by her daughter Sarah during a release party in Tel Aviv for Sarah's book, based on the account Rachel, Stefan, and David gave of the events in 1965. Concurrently, David is escorted from his apartment by an Israeli government agent for a debriefing. David recognises Stefan waiting in another vehicle and, unable to face their lie, he commits suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming truck.
In 1965, Rachel, a young Mossad agent on her first field assignment, arrives in East Berlin to meet with more experienced agents David Peretz and Stefan Gold. Their mission is to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel, infamously known as "The Surgeon of Birkenau" for his medical experiments on Jews during World War II, and bring him to justice in Israel. Rachel and David present themselves as a married couple from Argentina, and Rachel becomes a patient at Vogel's obstetrics and gynaecology clinic.
Rachel plans to have a gynaecological examination at Vogel's clinic. To present herself as a married woman who has recently had intercourse, she wants to sleep with David but does not explain why. Although the two have feelings for each other, David resists her overture. Instead, she sleeps with Stefan.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Jane Goldman, Peter Straughan, Matthew Vaughn
- Written by: Assaf Bernstein, Ido Rosenblum
- Cinematography: Ben Davis
- Edited by: Alexander Berner
- Music: Thomas Newman
- Production design: Jim Clay
- Produced by: Matthew Vaughn, Kris Thykier, Eduardo Rossoff, Eitan Evan
Cast
- Helen Mirren as Rachel Singer
- Tom Wilkinson as Stefan Gold
- Sam Worthington as Young David Peretz
- Ciarán Hinds as David Peretz
- Jessica Chastain as Young Rachel Singer
- Marton Csokas as Young Stefan Gold
- Jesper Christensen as Dieter Vogel
- Romi Aboulafia as Sarah Gold
- Adar Beck as Politicians Wife
- Morris Perry as Ivan Schevchuk
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Russian, English, German
- Studios: Pioneer Pictures, Miramax, Marv
- Budget: $20,000,000
- Box office: $45,636,368
- Themes: mossad, beach, secret agent, insane asylum, lye, syringe, lost of friend
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