close button

Film Festival Review: Hannah Arendt

Jul 22, 2013 Film & TV

Hannah Arendt

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta

Germany

If you’ve ever wondered how six million Jews went so passively to the gas chambers in Nazi Germany, you’re not alone. The New Yorker sent philosopher Hannah Arendt to cover the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel in 1961, and she wrote an explosive analysis that included accusing Jewish leaders of failing to help their people. Its publication caused huge rifts among her friends and readers (and, of course, predictable hostility from the Israel lobby).

Veteran director Margarethe von Trotta gives Arendt a cartoonish German accent and much of the film is taken up with dialogue, but her portrait of the tough, independent and intellectually gifted political theorist is fascinating — spiced by original footage from the show trial of the mediocre but genocidal bureaucrat spirited from Buenos Aires to Jerusalem who tried to hide behind the classic Nazi defence: “I was only following orders.”

 

Latest

Latest issue shadow

Metro N°441 is Out Now.

It’s our annual, inflation-busting ‘Where to Eat for Less Than $25’ list (with thanks to Uber Eats) issue! PLUS the Summer Books Special and the Auckland Property Report Card (with thanks to Barfoot and Thompson). Also, Sir Bob Harvey looks into the missing treasures in our museums and talks to Jacqui Knight about monarch butterflies. AND NOT ONLY THAT: Emil Scheffmann looks into our secondary art market, Matthew Hooton and Morgan Godfery look into the new government, Jamie Wall into the tennis, Hana Pera Aoake into the Māori response to the war in Palestine and Abby Howells into being the lion in the Wizard of Oz. We also find the 10 Best Bakeries in Auckland, a great recipe for a Japanese Breakfast and the king of the supermarket pasta brands. All this and much, much more.

Buy the latest issue