Opera Ball (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

Slow but bleak and worthwhile thriller

[tankjonah · 7/10 · 16 March 2006]

After the death of 4000 people, including many high ranking government officials, from a deliberate cyanide release at an extravagant opera ball, a journalist tries to uncover who was responsible and finds it to be a seemingly misfit neo-nazi group. Slow to start but ultimately a bleak and cynical thriller which plays as a disturbing precursor to 9/11. The discovery is that ultimately the terrorist group were merely pawns used by the government intent on having an excuse to introduce a radical and racist agenda, not too unlike the Nazis. The film's cynicism with government can today be read as an allegory, that is, America using 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq (who clearly had nothing to do with the attacks on the Trade Centre). The film does offer a glimmer of hope as the journalist manages to smuggle out the tape he has (of an interview by the last survivor of the group) that incriminates the government officials. With Frank Giering who played Fatty in Funny Games(1997) and Franka Potente.

Good TV criminal thriller with Franka Potente

[GMeleJr · 7/10 · 3 December 1999]

Franka Potente (RUN LOLA RUN) drew me to this film. I was disappointed she does not have as much screen time as the the other main characters. But nevertheless OPERNBALL (a "who done it" following a Neo-Nazi attack at a Viennese Opera Ball) is entertaining and worth watching. It gives insight on the threat of Neo Nazi youth in Europe today.