Colonia

While the coup takes place in Chile in 1973, Lena, a Lufthansa flight attendant, has her journalist boyfriend Daniel taken into custody. To find him she joins a cult called Colonia Dignidad. Colonia Dignidad was real. It was run by Paul Schäfer, a former Wehrmacht officer who escaped postwar prosecution by posing as a minister, and it functioned as both a cult and a secret prison used by Pinochet's police. Florian Gallenberger directed. Emma Watson plays Lena, Daniel Brühl the journalist and Michael Nyqvist plays Schäfer. It was shot across Luxembourg, Germany and Argentina. Commercially it was a disaster. It grossed 3.62 million dollars worldwide, and its UK opening weekend took 47 pounds, a figure the press returned to repeatedly. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 26 percent from 47 reviews. It received five German Film Award nominations and won a Bavarian Film Award for Best Production. Who it is for: viewers curious about the Chilean coup and the Colonia Dignidad case. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the subject to be handled properly. The film turns a real crime against humanity into an escape thriller, which is where the criticism starts.