We’re rapidly heading toward the centennial of the Second Great War’s beginning, and every year is rife with a handful of films that are about the war in some capacity. Seemingly, the well of material about obscure figures in World War II is endless. With this in mind, it’s not difficult to color one skeptical that there are new avenues with which to approach the conflict and the individuals involved. Yet, in A Forgotten Man, writer/director Laurent Nègre is ready for the challenge, delivering a compelling glimpse into the psyche of one man torn between Switzerland’s neutrality and Germany’s belligerence.
Heinrich Zwygart (Michael Neuenschwander) is the Swiss ambassador in Berlin as WWII comes to a close. Switzerland famously maintained its neutrality during the war, though the degree of its neutrality is up for debate. But in the wake of the unveiling of the Nazi’s atrocities, the Swiss government faced criticism for not doing enough to help Jewish refugees during the peak years of the Holocaust. Heinrich returns home, haunted by his involvement in the prosecution and death of a Nazi resistance member. His character is clearly based on the real-life Ambassador Hans Frölicher, so we needn’t worry about spoiler territory.
“…the psyche of one man torn between Switzerland’s neutrality and Germany’s belligerence.”
The movie’s success hinges upon Neuenschwander’s dynamic performance. He imbues his character with a weary countenance in line with a man unable to shake his guilt over his role in a tragedy. Heinrich tries to rekindle his familial bonds with his wife and daughter after his extended stay in Berlin, but his sins eat him from the inside. This remorse goes beyond that of an individual and transcends that sense of culpability to Switzerland as a whole. Neutrality is generally admirable, but when a genocide is happening right under a nation’s nose, taking a stand would have been the correct course of action.
A Forgotten Man is filmed in black and white. While some may consider this a trope of the WWII flick, it works to distract from the natural beauty of the Swiss countryside. Would stunning vistas filled with vibrant colors be an intelligent formal choice in a dramatic historical drama about a man’s reckoning with a tortured past? Nègre was wise to avoid this pitfall and instead focus on Heinrich’s interiority and conflict with his estranged family. Here is a man unable to see the world in the same way again. Through his turmoil, we question what the right call, both in his killing of a man and his country’s stance during the war, is.
The film’s most tremendous success is its willingness to address difficult questions about Switzerland’s past. Monday morning quarterbacking is easy almost a century after an event. But as new atrocities are springing up around the world, it’s essential that we choose our alliances carefully, lest we harbor inconsolable guilt down the road. The best movies make us examine such nuanced choices, and A Forgotten Man, at its best, makes the past seem shockingly present. That is no small feat.
For more information about A Forgotten Man, visit Sovereign Films official website.
"…no small feat."
