Eighty years on and the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942 continues to chill to the core of humanity. Senior Nazi officials, chaired by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh), gather in luxurious surrounds on the outskirts of Berlin to discuss arrangements for The Final Solution – and convince the few within the room who are opposed – or at least concerned.
It’s a confronting claustrophobe of a feature, contained almost entirely within two rooms. As Heydrich’s second-in-command, SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann (Stanley Tucci), organises refreshments and the smooth-running of arrangements, casual conversations and discussions abound in shocking alacrity of the elimination of Jews in Germany and occupied territories. Director Frank Pierson introduces few distractions, creating an intensity of meaning and understanding to the words spoken.
Based on a surviving record of the meeting (instructions were obviously not followed to the letter), Conspiracy is powerful and terrifying as Heydrich cajoles and bullies sceptics and supporters alike – Aryan supremacists, fascists, petty tyrants, schoolyard bullies – into genocide as a cold and calculating Eichmann simply ‘hovers’.
Rating: 72%
(Heydrich was assassinated in Prague a few months later – see Killing Heydrich: he was replaced by Eichmann, who was tracked down to Argentina in 1960 – Operation Finale)
An Opinion or Two 