Fatherland [VHS]
This retro-futuristic adventure depicts a 1964 in which Hitler won the war and Joe Kennedy Sr. is U.S. president. Europe is known as Germania and opens its borders to American journalists, hoping to line up the U.S. as an ally against Russia. Set design and costumes very effectively create a potent and prosperous state, culled both from imagination and the history books. More downbeat and perhaps more effective thanRobert Harris's chilling novel,Fatherlandis brought to life by Rutger Hauer as an SS officer  who stumbles onto eye-opening secrets. Miranda Richardson is the tough-cookie American caught up in a web of lies made all the more intriguing by a superb supporting cast. They hook up to solve a murder and uncover an atrocity dating back to World War II. Watch for a particularly nasty Jean Marsh in a supporting role; she steals every scene in which she appears.--Rochelle O'Gorman