Kinology has come on board the highly anticipated next film of Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,” based on Olivier Guez’s bestselling novel. Kinology is at Cannes to present the project to buyers.

Set to start shooting in a few weeks, the film is being produced by Charles Gillibert at CG Cinema (“Annette”) and Ilya Stewart at Hype Studios (“Tchaikovsky’s Wife”), Felix von Boem at Lupa Films, Arte France Cinéma, Mélanie Biessy with Scala Films, Forma Pro Films and Cimarron coproduce the film with Piano. Bac Films does French distribution and DCM german distribution.

It stars August Diehl as Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor who found refuge in South America at the end of WWII and was never captured. Mengele died in Brazil in 1979 without having been judged for his crimes. The movie will focus on Mengele’s fugitive years in South America, and will be told from his point of view.

Guez’s novel won the prestigious Renaudot Prize in 2017 in France and was published in more than 30 countries. Serebrennikov has “Limonov” on deck; as well as “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” and “Leto,” both of which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and 2018, respectively.

“The events of the Second World War are most often represented in art in the name of heroes whose motivations we understand very clearly. They are resistance fighters, allied soldiers, anonymous people who fought against Nazism. With ‘The Disappearance,’ we reverse the point of view: we try to examine the darkest side of the human soul, from a perspective that has never been seen before. It is a film thought, written and made from the very subjectivity of those who made the whole world tremble with fear,” said Serebrennikov.

The cast also includes Max Bretschneider, David Ruland, Dana Herfurth and Burghart Klaussner.