Trading the slow death of his marriage for the war-torn Beirut, German journalist Georg is on a news assignment with his shutterbug photographing confidant, Hoffman, and join an international coterie of competitive fellow journalists. Outside, they take their lives in their own hands, dodging both Christian and
Palestinian bullets and conducting interviews that are just a shot away from execution. When he meets a beautiful German ex-pat widow, the personal crashes with the political.Circle Of Deceit is a compelling drama that shows what it is like for one person to survive in a war zone and seeing the evil behind it, with the acclaimed Volker Schlondorff directing the feature. I try not to fall asleep and keep on my viewing focus on the sequences of war, shootings, explosions, etc. I had no idea that filming in the war-torn Lebanon is allowed there even without security reasons for not just the filmmakers but also the photojournalists. And yes, they all looked REAL to me. Remembering that this was the same actor who did Hitler in Downfall I wanted to see a great acting performance of Bruno Ganz in another film. I can tell you that he was so impressive here.
March 8, 2010
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