Two rather tense-looking men, Jozef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Ján Kubiš (Jamie Dornan) are parachuted into snowy woods in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia - their task is the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the local Nazi chief in Prague. Heydrich is a prestigious target, being outranked only by Hitler and Himmler in The Third Reich hierarchy.
In the welter of suspicion that envelops the Czech capital, the two parachutists must win the confidence of the Prague Resistance who are ambivalent about, if not downright opposed to, any attempt to kell Heydrich, in Operation Anthropoid. The plan has been orchestrated by the Czech government in exile in London, but the Resistance does not want to bring Nazi wrath down on their families.
Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy in Anthropoid
In Prague, Gabčík and Kubiš are duly billeted with a sympathetic family, and assigned two girls, Marie (Charlotte Le Bon) and Lenka (Anna Geislerova) who will befriend them, and make them look less suspicious. Befriended becomes beloved, however, and company-keeping becomes passionate – these are desperate times, these are passionate young people.
Thus, the conspiracy gathers pace, involving our two parachutists along with five others, who will attempt to kill Heydrich at a street junction as he travels by car on a certain morning. The facts of the assassination attempt are a matter of record so we will not spoil. Suffice to say that it does not have a clear result. Nazi anger is provoked, and there is much brutality, indeed one or two instances of violence that are difficult to watch.
An extended shoot-out at a Prague church between Nazi soldiers and Czech partisans is the rather over-long climax to the movie. Anthropoid is a compelling story, well told, with solid performances, but you can't help but wonder what Bertrand Tavernier, say, might have made with this material. While there are loads of cyanide capsules towards the close - inevitably, suicide proves the better option for the rebels - that oddly mercurial ingredient that would make it a Resistance classic is missing.
Paddy Kehoe
