The Lost One

Synopsis

"In order to make what would remain his only film as director, Peter Lorre returned to Germany 20 years after M. Set amid the postwar ruins of Hamburg, The Lost One (Der Verlorene) has been aptly described as a rare and fascinating blend of German expressionism, American noir and Italian neorealism. The opening title, “This film is not freely invented. It is informed by factual reports from recent years,” establishes its slightly unsettling, no-nonsense atmosphere. The bulk of the story is told via flashbacks. Dr Rothe (Lorre), a physician in a refugee camp, encounters his former colleague Hösch (Karl John) upon the arrival of a new transport of displaced persons. During a nocturnal drinking session, Rothe remembers past events. He used to work as a research biologist in Germany during the war [when] he realised that his fiancée had betrayed him and handed the results of their secret vaccine research over to London...

More than 30 years later, critic-turned-filmmaker Harun Farocki arrived at the conclusion that “there is hardly another film that has foreshadowed fascism as exactly as M, and hardly another that has traced the remnants of fascism as exactly as Der Verlorene”." – Michael Omasta