Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl star as an expat couple in 1973 Chile who fall foul of a brutal religious cult
Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl star as an expat couple in 1973 Chile who fall foul of a brutal religious cult.
Set against the backdrop of the coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, this political thriller is loosely inspired by a true story, though it becomes increasingly far-fetched as it goes along.
Arrested student activist Brühl ends up in the clutches of German émigré preacher Michael Nyqvist, an ex-Nazi whose ostensibly charitable religious settlement is in cahoots with the regime and is secretly being used as a torture camp.
Determined to rescue him, plucky flight attendant Watson infiltrates the sealed-off camp, posing as a believer...
The couple's efforts to escape the camp supply genuinely gripping thrills and spills, but given Watson and Brühl's solid performances and Nyqvist's sadistic villainy, a more realistic treatment of the subject would have produced a more chilling, satisfying result.
