Hannah Arendt

Barbara Sukowa embodies Hannah Arendt, who in 1961 travels to Jerusalem to follow the Eichmann trial. With a sharp eye she recognizes: evil can be frighteningly ordinary — the banality of evil shocks a world that wants to see monsters. Von Trotta does not present a dull biopic, but a vibrant drama of thought: Arendt smoking amid blue clouds of haze, sparring in debates, struggling with friends, opponents, lovers. The philosopher stands in the middle of a storm of public rage, threatened, slandered, full of doubt — and still thinking. The film encourages dissent: freedom begins where thinking becomes uncomfortable and even those close to us seem distant. Clever, provocative, and strikingly contemporary. A cinematic essay about the courage to think — even when it hurts.
(Klaus Davidowicz)