Riphagen the Untouchable

Amsterdam during the Second World War. Dries Riphagen is a Dutch criminal working with the German security service during the occupation. His method is this: he reaches Jewish families in hiding, tells them there is a safe way out, collects their money and valuables, and then informs on them. Hundreds were caught that way. He is arrested after the war but not tried for a long time; he has connections, and in the end he leaves the country for Argentina. Pieter Kuijpers directs. The story is real. Riphagen is one of the most contested files of postwar Holland; he was never convicted and died in Spain in 1973. The second strand follows two men trying to catch him: a young man who was in the resistance and a prosecutor. The narrative moves between the two sides. Its real matter is how the postwar reckoning failed. What made Riphagen's escape possible was institutions wanting to cover their own past, and the film shows that directly. The period is carefully drawn; Amsterdam under occupation is built in detail. Its limits are length and tone; the film is long and the tension drops in the second half. Who it is for: viewers who follow the files of the Second World War and European crime drama. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the narrative is crowded, and the ending gives no sense of justice.