Product Review

The sublime Barbara Sukowa reteams with Margarethe von Trotta (Vision, Rosa Luxemburg) for her brilliant biopic of influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt s reporting on the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker controversial for her portrayal of Eichmann and the Jewish councils introduced her now-famous concept of the banality of evil. Using archival footage of the trial and weaving a narrative that spans three continents, von Trotta beautifully turns the often-invisible passion for thought into immersive, dramatic cinema. Hannah Arendt co-stars Klaus Pohl as philosopher Martin Heidegger, Nicolas Woodeson as New Yorker editor William Shawn, and two-time Oscar Nominee Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) as novelist Mary McCarthy.