A chilling moment in history

“The Wannsee Conference” (1984), which begins an open-ended 11 a.m. weekend revival run Saturday and Sunday at the Fairfax Cinemas, is a brisk and chillingly detailed re-creation of the infamous 1942 meeting called by SS leader Reinhard Heydrich (Dietrich Mattausch) to set in motion the Final Solution, decreeing the systematic annihilation in German-occupied Europe of all Jews and all others decreed undesirable by the Third Reich.

Working from extensive documents, director Heinz Schirk and writer Paul Mommertz have created a mesmerizing you-are-there atmosphere while portraying individuals caught up in collective self-deception -- and who spell out the terms of the Final Solution with a cowardly indirectness.

Kevin Thomas

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Fairfax Cinemas, Beverly Boulevard at Fairfax Avenue, (323) 655-4010