Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Janet McTeer
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Genre: Biography, Drama
Running Time: 113 Minutes

Synopsis: Hannah Arendt is a portrait of the genius that shook the world with her discovery of 'the banality of evil." After she attends the Nazi Adolf Eichmann's trail in Jerusalem, Arendt dares to write about the Holocaust in terms no one had ever heard before. Her work instantly provokes a scandal, and Arendt stands strong as she is attacked by friends and foes alike. But as the German-Jewish émigré struggles to supress her own painful associations with the past, the film exposes her beguiling blend of arrogance and vulnerability – revealing a soul defined and derailed by exile.

The film portrays Hannah Arendt (Barbara Sukowa) during the four years, (1961 to 1964), that she observes, writes, and endures the reception for her work on the trail of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann. Watching Arendt as she attends the trial, staying by her side as she is both barraged by her critics and supported by a tight band of loyal friends, we experience the intensity of this powerful Jewish woman who fled Nazi Germany in 1933. The Fierce, chain-smoking Arendt is happy and flourishing in America, but her penetrating vision makes her an outsider wherever she goes.

When Arendt hears that the Israeli Secret Service has kidnapped Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires and brought him to Jerusalem, she is determined to report on the trial. William Shawn (Nicholas Woodeson), the editor of 'The New Yorker" magazine, is thrilled to have such an esteemed intellectual cover the historical process, but Arendt's husband, Heinrich Blucher (Axel Milberg), is not so sure. He worries that this encounter will put his beloved Hannah back into what they both call the 'dark times".

Arendt enters the tense Jerusalem courtroom expecting to see a monster and instead she finds a nobody. The Shallow mediocrity of the man cannot be easily reconciled with the profound evil of his actions, but Arendt quickly realizes that this contrast is the puzzle that must be solved. Arendt returns to New York and as she begins to discuss her ground-breaking interpretation of Adolf Eichmann, fear ripples through her best friend, Hans Jonas (Ulrich Noethen). Her philosophical approach will only cause confusion, he warns. But Arendt defends her courageous and original perspective and Heinrich supports her all the way. After two years of intense thought, additional reading, and further debate with her best American friend Lotte Kohler (Julia Jentsch) and of course, constant consultation with Heinrich, she finally delivers her manuscript. The publication of the article in 'The New Yorker" provokes an immediate scandal in the U.S., Israel, and soon in the rest of the world.

Hannah Arendt provides an insight into the profound importance of her ideas. But even more moving is the chance to understand the warm heart and icy brilliance of this complex and deeply compelling woman.

Hannah Arendt
Release Date: March 13th, 2014