The Original Debt

The Mossad became legendary as the spy agency that always got its man—whether he happened to be a Nazi war criminal or a Palestinian terrorist. The 2007 Israeli film The Debt—remade three years later with Helen Mirren in the star role—raised questions about the legend. In the fictional story, a trio of Mossad agents is sent in 1964 on a raid into East Berlin to get the Surgeon of Birkenau, a Mengele-like Nazi doctor who practiced gynecology postwar under a false name. The mission is bungled, but the agents stick with the lie that they had assassinated the Surgeon—until 30 years later when their story threatens to unravel. The original Israeli film, only a rumor in the U.S. when the Mirren vehicle appeared in theaters, has finally been released on DVD. Directed by Assaf Bernstein on a tight budget and with stars unrecognized outside their homeland, the original Debt is less suspenseful than the remake, but also less Hollywood, a subtler film, more focused if in some respects less intriguing. How does it rank with the Hollywood version? Let's call it a toss up.