Film screening Pop Up Film Haus: Hannah Arendt

German Cinema in the Crossroads

As part of the Year of German-American Friendship we’re bringing German film to Kansas City. With our Pop Up Film Haus events we seek to bring together cinephiles, German speakers, and the uninitiated alike to discover German cinema through our curated selection of films. Each film will be shown with English subtitles and there will be an opportunity for discussion following each screening.

Goethe Pop Up Kansas City welcomes all to join us this week for a screening of Margarethe von Trotta’s film Hannah Arendt.
 

Germany | Luxembourg | France | Israel 2012, 113 min
Director: Margarethe von Trotta 
Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Janet McTeer

Hannah Arendt is an observer at Adolf Eichmann’s trial. She is expecting to be confronted with a monster. Instead, she is faced with a banal bureaucrat. The reflective portrait of a brave and determined woman. 
A biographical feature film about the philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), focusing especially on her observations and analysis of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem. Condensed into a dynamically narrated portrait of an exceptional 20th century intellectual, the film also impresses with its intimate portrayal of the New York milieu of German-Jewish immigrants in the early 1960s.

Discussion:
The film Hannah Arendt focuses on the scandal caused by Arendt’s analysis of the Eichmann Trial for war crimes in Jerusalem in 1961. In spite of the scandal, Arendt insisted on her right to freedom of speech as a journalist and as a university professor. We will discuss the consequences of her stance, both in the context of the events depicted in the film, as well as more generally for American society today.
Dr. Scott Baker is Associate Professor of German at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) and will lead the discussion after the film.
 

 

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