Denial
Director: Mick Jackson
Stars: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall
Duration: 109 mins
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

1996. American professor and historian Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) is surprised to learn she has been sued for libel by David Irving (Timothy Spall), a British author specialising in books on World War II. Irving claims he was slandered by Lipstadt’s assertions in her book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory that he was a Holocaust denier.

What followed was a libel trial held in Britain’s highest courts of justice... a trial that would go on to become one of the more significant ones on British legal history, while serving as a reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

The twist in the tale, as it were, is that much to Professor Lipstadt’s surprise, under UK libel laws, she was presumed guilty and it is up to her to prove her innocence. To do so she and her legal team, led by solicitor Anthony Julius (Andrew Scott) and barrister Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkinson) needed to prove that the Holocaust, in fact,  occurred. Much to Lipstadt’s chagrin, however, they deny her the chance to testify in her own defence, wanting the facts to speak for themselves.

One of the reasons Mick Jackson was drawn to the project is the topical aspect of its story

With a screenplay written by acclaimed playwright David Hare and directed by Mick Jackson, Denial eschews the theatrical histrionics often associated with courtroom dramas. Instead, it reconstructs the painstaking research and attention to detail that went into presenting cold, hard, facts that proved Irving wrong in many of the assertions he made in his myriad publications.... while presenting a foursome of fascinating protagonists for its ensemble.

Denial offers Weisz to turn in another thoughtful and insightful performance, channelling Lipstadt’s intelligence, passion and righteous indignation with sharp accuracy. This is a woman who will stop at nothing for the truth to prevail. Facing a daunting trial away from home takes on a legal system that is completely different to that in the US. It deals with the disappointment of a Jewish community who believes she is fighting a lost cause, while trying to comprehend her legal team’s insistence on keeping her off the stand.

Spall is equally impressive as Irving and never plays him as a caricature of evil but as a distinguished and intelligent man who, odious though his writings and opinions may be, is driven by the power of his beliefs. There is something morbidly fascinating in his presentation of his ‘alternative facts’. For example it was never proven that Hitler ordered the killing of Jews. Yet it must be said that the more we learn about him, the less fascinating he appears.

Andrew Scott’s Julius is a man of intellect, fighting the cause for he understands the wider implications of its scope, while Tom Wilkinson’s Rampton is a barrister for whom truth is the ultimate weapon. He excels in court, taking apart Irving’s claims with integrity and gravitas.

Denial is a film that feeds the mind, yet emotions do come into play, most crucially in the one scene that takes place at Auschwitz, where Rampton takes his team to examine the remains of gas chambers and their environs as they build their case.

It is a quiet, sombre scene with little dialogue yet devastating in its simple evocation of the horrors that went on in there. It packs a powerful emotional punch.

Denial couldn’t be more timely, with ‘fake news’ one of the disturbing catchphrases of our time. So much so, Denial’s director, Mick Jackson, explains that one of the reasons he was drawn to the project is the topical aspect of its story.

“We live in an age of unreason and lies, an age of violent outrages and all kinds of assaults on the truth,” he says. And his in-depth, serious and absorbing take on this true-life story is indeed an ode to the truth and one to be treasured.

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