Anthropoid
Short description
Anthropoid dramatizes Operation Anthropoid, the World War II mission to kill Reinhard Heydrich, the SS official known as the "Butcher of Prague" and one of the most powerful figures in Nazi Germany. Two Czechoslovak soldiers, Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík, are parachuted into their occupied homeland after training in Britain, where they and other exiles have been recruited for the task. With help from a resistance network, they prepare an attack on a target who is heavily guarded, and the plan demands secrecy, timing and considerable luck.
Sean Ellis directed and co-wrote the film with Anthony Frewin, and also produced it with Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon. Released in 2016, it followed Ellis's earlier features Cashback, in its 2004 and 2007 versions, and The Broken, and it came before The Cursed and The Cut in his filmography. Jamie Dornan plays Kubiš and Cillian Murphy plays Gabčík, with Charlotte Le Bon, Anna Geislerová, Harry Lloyd and Toby Jones among a credited cast of 26.
Made for about 9 million dollars, the film earned roughly 5 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from around 59,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 out of 10 from roughly 1,200 votes. A critics' rating stands at 6.4 out of 10 from 105 reviews, so audiences rated it somewhat higher than critics did.
What's left behind the scenes
- "Anthropoid" means "human-like."
- It is believed that Reinhard Heydrich was traveling in a car with the license plate SS-3 on the day of the assassination, although numerous sources claim it was a car with the number SS-4. It is impossible to confirm or deny this, as the arriving Gestapo officers first removed the license plate from the car and only then began taking photographs of the scene.
- Sean Ellis began working on the project in the early 2000s after seeing a documentary film about Operation Anthropoid.
- Jiri Sequens also filmed "The Attempt" (1964) on this topic, and Lewis Gilbert – "Operation Daybreak" (1975). Like "Anthropoid," they were filmed in Prague for greater authenticity.
- During the war, the Gestapo headquarters in Prague was located in a bank building. Many fighters of the Czech resistance were tortured there, and now the building's basement houses a museum. The scene of Attia Moravec's torture was filmed in the very basement room where prisoners were actually tortured.
- Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (1904-1942) was the third person in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. The license plate of his car was SS-3.
- Emily Watson was initially cast in the role of Pani Moravec, but she had to leave the project due to her father's illness, and the role went to Alyona Mikhulova.
- Irish actors Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan play Czechoslovak agents in the film.
- The filmmakers wanted to shoot in Moravec’s actual apartment, but it turned out to be too cramped. The apartment set was built in one of the pavilions of the Czech Barrandov Studios.
- The interior of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius was recreated in the pavilions of Barrandov Studios in Prague. 40 people took part in building the sets.
- The tiles on the floor of Moravec's apartment did indeed have a pattern or ornament resembling a swastika. It was deliberately replicated during the creation of the set – as can be seen in the scene of Mrs. Moravec's interrogation by the Gestapo.
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