The Debt (2010)

The Debt is a 2010 American-British remake of the 2007 Israeli thriller film Ha-Hov,^[3] directed by John Madden from a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan. It stars Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Marton Csokas and Jesper Christensen.

Although ready for release in July 2010,^[2] and scheduled for a December 2010 release in the United States,^[4] the film only toured various film festivals during the autumn of 2010 and spring of 2011. It didn't see a general release until it was released in France on 15 June 2011, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia in July 2011, and the United States, Canada and India on 31 August 2011.

In 1997, Rachel is honoured by her daughter Sarah during a release party in Tel Aviv for Sarah's book based on the account Rachel, Stefan and David gave of the events in 1965. Concurrently, David is escorted from his apartment by an Israeli government agent for a debriefing. David recognises Stefan waiting in another vehicle and unable to face their lie, he commits suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming truck.

In 1965, a young Mossad agent Rachel Singer on her first field assignment arrives in East Berlin to meet with more experienced agents David Peretz and Stefan Gold. Their mission is to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel—infamously known as "The Surgeon of Birkenau" for his medical experiments on Jews during World War II—and bring him to Israel to face justice. Rachel and David present themselves as a married couple from Argentina and Rachel becomes a patient at Vogel's obstetrics and gynaecology clinic.

At a doctor appointment, Rachel injects Vogel with a sedative during an examination and convinces the nurse to believe that he has suffered a heart attack. Stefan and David arrive dressed as paramedics and make off with the unconscious Vogel in an ambulance. They attempt to leave by train, but Vogel awakens and sounds the horn of the van where he is being held, alerting guards to their presence. When gunfire erupts, David surrenders himself and sacrifices his chance to escape in order to save the compromised Rachel. David is taken into police custody and the agents have no choice but to bring Vogel to their apartment and plan a new extraction.

The agents take turns monitoring and feeding Vogel while leaving him chained to the wall heater. During his shift, David becomes violently enraged after Vogel explains his beliefs that Jews have many weaknesses, such as selfishness, making them easily subdued. David smashes a bowl over Vogel's head and starts repeatedly to beat him. Rachel runs in and tries to stop him but David unknowingly hits her while still hitting Vogel. David is finally restrained and pulled out of the room by Stefan.

Rachel goes into the bathroom to wash the blood off her face leaving Vogel alone. He grabs a shard of the broken bowl and starts cutting through his bonds. When Rachel returns to the room Vogel attacks her with the shard, throwing her against the wall and knocking her unconscious. Vogel opens the front door, runs down the stairs and escapes.

Stefan, panicking and hoping to avoid humiliation comes up with a fictional story that Rachel shot and killed Vogel because he was trying to escape. They then got rid of the body. Rachel insists they cannot lie about what happened but David, who is blaming himself for Vogel escaping, agrees to lie. Stefan pushes Rachel to reluctantly agree.

In the following years, the agents are venerated as national heroes for their roles in the mission. At a dinner after their daughter's book release party, Stefan takes Rachel aside to set a meeting to discuss new information he has obtained. Later, at David's flat, Stefan provides evidence that Vogel is in a Mental Hospital in Ukraine, and is soon scheduled to be interviewed by a local journalist.

Stefan claims David killed himself because he was a coward. Rachel refutes Stefan's explanation, recalling an encounter with David a day before his suicide, in which he revealed his shame about the lie and disclosed that he had spent years unsuccessfully searching the world for Vogel so he could finally be brought to justice. He was further disheartened by Rachel's admission that she would continue propagating the lie to protect those closest to her, particularly her daughter.

Nevertheless, Rachel finally feels compelled to travel to Kyiv. She investigates the journalist's lead and is able to travel to the asylum. She reaches the room just minutes before the journalist and discovers the man claiming to be Vogel is not him. Describing the encounter to Stefan over the phone, Rachel declares she will not continue to lie about the 1965 mission. She leaves a note for the journalist and suddenly spots the real Vogel among the other patients and follows him to an isolated area of the hospital.

After a confrontation in which Vogel stabs her twice with scissors, Rachel kills Vogel by plunging a poisoned syringe into his back. Later Rachel's note is discovered and read by the journalist. It describes the truth of the mission, ready to be relayed to the world.