Schächten—A Retribution

Q&As with director Thomas Roth and actor Jeff Wilbusch

This dynamic, lavishly mounted historical drama about the scars of war and the long road to revenge explores the lives of Austrian Jews in the years following World War II and the legacies of anti-Semitism and racism that follow them. Set in Vienna in the 1960s, Schächten follows a young Jewish businessman named Victor who bears witness to an unthinkable miscarriage of justice: the acquittal of an SS commandant who oversaw the murder of Victor’s mother, sister, and grandparents when he was a child. As a result, Victor loses faith in the ability of the legal system to mete out proper punishment and vows instead to take the law into his own hands. Thomas Roth’s film sensitively handles difficult subject matter and builds to a haunting conclusion.