Anthropoid

[projekktor id=’25011′]

Anthropoid is a World War II thriller co-written by Sean Ellis and Anthony Frewin and directed by Ellis. It premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this July and stars Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Aňa Geislerová, and Toby Jones.

Anthropoid is based on the extraordinary true story of “Operation Anthropoid,” the code name for the Czechoslovakian operatives’ mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution, was the Reich’s third in command behind Hitler and Himmler and the leader of Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia. The film follows two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile, Josef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan), who are parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941. With limited intelligence and little equipment in a city under lockdown, they must find a way to assassinate Heydrich, an operation that would change the face of Europe forever.

“If you follow the history from the Munich Agreement all the way to the assassination and through the aftermath, it’s an incredibly complex and overwhelming story,” says Ellis. “It took me a while to figure that I didn’t want to make a blockbuster war epic, but instead focus on the story of two parachutists. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík, to know what it would have felt like to be part of the ultimate act of resistance.”

Anthropoid is rated 18A.