von Trotta, Margarethe, dir. Hannah Arendt

The film portrays the period of Hannah Arendt’s life in which she attended the Eichmann trial and wrote about it for the New Yorker. The focus of the story is not only on Arendt’s conception or development of the concept of the Banality of Evil [see Key Texts], but more importantly, the reception of her report. Arendt was criticised sharply especially by the Jewish community, not only for humanising Eichmann, but also with regard to her comments about the involvement of the Jewish Councils in the Holocaust. The film has been generally well received and lends itself well for teaching about Hannah Arendt and the Eichmann trial.

von Trotta, Margarethe, dir. Hannah Arendt. Cologne: Heimatfilm, 2012.