From Netflix:
After fleeing Nazi Germany for the United States, a Jewish-German philosopher accepts an assignment from the New Yorker to cover the trial of an infamous war criminal, resulting in an article that ignites controversy all over the world.
According to Wikipedia:
In 2012 a German film titled Hannah Arendt was released, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, and with Barbara Sukowa in the role of Arendt. The film concentrates on the Eichmann trial, and the controversy caused by Arendt’s book, which at the time was widely misunderstood as defending Eichmann and blaming Jewish leaders for the Holocaust.
Perhaps “talking heads” best describes this philosophical, talkative, historical non-action film in which the characters endlessly discuss (argue?) the nature of evil, the involvement of the Jewish leaders during the Nazi regime, group versus individual culpability, Eichmann’s trial, etc. etc. etc.
Most of the dialog is in German. Subtitles are for all spoken words, German and otherwise. Perhaps the fact that this is a German film explains why so many of the lines spoken in English sound like something out of a high school drama class.
As the film often reminds us, it is not fair to criticize the ideas of Hannah Arendt without first having the fortitude to read what she wrote.
Try and keep watching up to the point in which Hannah defends her ideas before a large student body. Her speech is moving and in direct opposition to the irrational, emotional, and completely understandable reaction of many Jews.
