... & Hannah & Rosa & Marianne & Juliane. New German Cinema director Margarethe von Trotta has been working with actress Barbara Sukowa for over three decades, portraying women who think, question and rebel. GOETHE FILMS presents MARIANNE & JULIANE (1981), ROSA LUXEMBURG (1986) and HANNAH ARENDT (2012) as a conversation about female resilience.
HANNAH ARENDT (Germany/Luxembourg/France 2012, 113 min, on 35mm!), directed by Margarethe von Trotta, with Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Julia Jentsch & Ulrich Noethen
Introduced by NOW Magazine Senior Entertainment Editor Susan G. Cole
TIFF 2012
New York Jewish Film Festival 2012
2 German Film Awards 2013
Audience Award for Best Narrative Film, Women + Film Voices Film Festival, Denver 2013
In April 1961, German-Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt left her New York exile for Jerusalem to report on the trial of Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker. Her writing became enormously controversial for its depiction of both Eichmann and the Jewish leadership, and for its introduction of the concept of the “banality of evil”. Making use of original film footage from the trial, as well as real testimony from survivors and prosecutor Gideon Hausner, this biographical drama captures Arendt at one of the most pivotal moments of her life and career.
"Hannah Arendt conveys the glamour, charisma and difficulty of a certain kind of German thought. Ms. Sukowa, compact and energetic and not overly concerned with impersonation, captures Arendt’s fearsome cerebral power, as well as her warmth and, above all, the essential, unappeasable curiosity that drove her.... Its climax, in which Arendt defends herself against critics, matches some of the great courtroom scenes in cinema."- The New York Times
Margarethe von Trotta (born 1942 in Berlin) ranks among the most important female directors in German cinema and has been called "the world’s leading feminist filmmaker." She also made a name for herself as an actress, starring in films by well known German directors such as Fassbinder and Schlöndorff. Her films are concerned with relationships between and among women (sisters, best friends), as well as with relationships between women and men, often in political settings. Her best-known films include: "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" (1975, co-directed with Volker Schlöndorff), "The Second Awakening of Christa Klages" (1977), "Marianne and Juliane" ("Die Bleierne Zeit", 1981), "Rosa Luxemburg" (1985), and "Hannah Arendt" (2012). She is currently in production of the comedy "The Odd Couple" (2017, with Katja Riemann and Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) about two women living together who have nothing in common except the same ex-husband. She is also working on a documentary about Ingmar Bergman, taking a closer look at his life and exploring his film legacy with Bergman's closest collaborators.
Barbara Sukowa (born 1950 in Bremen) studied acting at Berlin's Max-Reinhardt-Seminar. Sukowa made her breakthrough in front of the camera in the role of Mieze in Fassbinder's TV adaptation of "Berlin Alexanderplatz". She then played the title role of the small town prostitute "Lola" in Fassbinder's trilogy about the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany. Sukowa starred working with Margarethe von Trotta on "Marianne and Julianne", for which she received the German Film Award in 1982. She won the Golden Palm at Cannes 1986 for her performance in von Trotta's "Rosa Luxemburg". In the following years, she starred in Schlöndorff's adaptation of Max Frisch's novel "Homo Faber" and in Lars von Trier's "Europa". After several US productions Sukowa returned to Germany for a couple of movies. In 2015, she reunited with von Trotta for the family drama "The Misplaced World", and joined the cast of the US Sci-Fi series "Twelve Monkeys". She next starred opposite Josef Hader in "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe", directed by Maria Schrader. Her portrayal of Zweig's first wife garnered Sukowa a German Film award nomination for Best Supporting Female Actor.
All GOETHE FILMS are open to audience 18+
Part of the Goethe-Institut’s focus on German Film
