The Great Dictator

Presented by: Ines Mitterer (Ö1)

‘Turn off the radio!’ shouts Hannah, who almost misses the stormtroopers approaching the ghetto over the broadcast roar of the dictator Hynkel. The medium is almost omnipresent in this clear-sighted and touching film about dictatorship, hatred of Jews and the occupation of ‘Osterlitsch’. In Charles Chaplin's first sound film, the microphones bend to avoid the dictator's tirades, the streets roar with the echo of hatred, but ultimately the medium itself becomes a tool for good - a message of love and humanity penetrates the ether and becomes a utopian vision. ‘Hannah, did you hear that?’ - ‘Listen ...’ are the last words of the film. (Jakob Brossmann)