Director John Madden’s The Debt(2010) relays the reconnaissance history of a group of three retired Mossad agents, Rachel Singer(Helen Mirren), Stephan Gold(Tom Wilinson), and David Peretz(Ciaran Hinds), famous for capturing and killing a nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel(Jesper Christensen), the Surgeon of Birkenau in 1965. The film is told in two parts, with the agents in 1965 telling the real story of what happened, portrayed by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington, respectively, and in 1997, when the retired agents are dealing with the lie they have told the world, that they really killed Vogel.
The opening scene finds the three young agents, frightened as they step out of their transportation system, and then goes forward in time to a party where Rachel Singer’s daughter, Sara Gold(Romi Aboulafia) is dedicating the book she has written about her parents’ famous past.
During this scene, shots of Helen Mirren’s character appears to be uncomfortable, as she reads aloud a portion of the book, detailing the final night of Vogel’s life and how she killed him mere seconds before he was able to escape. She then meets with he ex-husband, Stephan, and hears of the suicide of their partner, David. Immediately she breaks down and cries that he would take his own life.
This film emphasizes the idea of lies filling one with regret, and the hard truth of turning one’s life around to get the truth out to everyone. The first photo shows the three young agents as they prepare and attempt to go through their mission, which the audience finds out through flashbacks, did not go as planned, and was the the story that the agents told the world for the past thirty years. Each character in their own way was affected by the terrifying mission, and the repercussions of it shows in their personalities in 1997. The three young agents made a pact the night Vogel escaped to tell their lie, and to never allow what happened to leave the three of them.
The second shot shows the retired Rachel Singer, alone and dominant in the shot as she contemplates killing the man who few believe to be Vogel, the man who escaped thirty years before. Rachel, had taken the credit for killing Vogel, yet she is unable to when her chance comes up again. The chance to make their lie become the truth. After Rachel realizes that this man is not Vogel, she leaves after leaving a note on the man’s bed, a message to the reporter who was going to interview the man who claimed to Vogel. Rachel then calls Stephan to explain that they had nothing to worry about, that the man was not the one who could embarrass them till their deaths, and to explain that David killed himself because he could not bear to live with the lie any longer. He had wanted the truth to come out but when his partners would not allow it, he took his life.
While leaving the fake Vogel, Rachel sees a fleeting glance of a man who she recognizes. Immediately she begins to follow and finds Vogel. Both are much older since the last time they saw each other, and pick up where they left off. Fighting, with Vogel leaving Rachel behind. The only difference is that this time, Rachel managed to come full circle, and finally kills Vogel with the syringe, bringing truth to the lie that followed the three agents and shadowed their lives for the past thirty years.
The ideology in The Debt is implicit. Obviously, the protagonist, Rachel, stands for something in the film, but the audience must infer what it is as the film unfolds, and as her transformation occurs from one who can guiltily live with a lie, to one who will do anything to make it true. The back and forth between time allows the audience to realize the morals of all Rachel, Stephan, David, and Vogel, and how Vogel and Stephan are willing to live in the shadow of a lie, to Rachel and David, who are willing to risk their lives to find the truth.
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