Centerpiece Film at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival: The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Philadelphia Premiere
Date: Monday, April 18
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Kimmel Center for Performing Arts
Director: Lars Kraume
Genre: Narrative (based on a true story)
Country: Germany
Year: 2015
Running Time: 105 min
Languages: German, English, and Yiddish with English subtitles
Germany’s leading actors Burghart Klaussner (The White Ribbon) and Ronald Zehrfeld (Barbara, Phoenix) star in this gripping historic thriller chronicling the apathy of 1950s postwar Germany towards the horrors of its recent past.
Attorney General Fritz Bauer, a German Jew who returns to his homeland after fleeing to Denmark in 1936, is a Social Democratic activist committed to bringing Nazi war criminals like Adolph Eichmann, Martin Bormann, and Joseph Mengele to justice. While attempts to silence him with slanderous accusations escalate in the court of public opinion, the dogged prosecutor pursues a promising lead and forms a secret alliance with Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, who agree to aid Bauer in apprehending the mastermind of the Final Solution, Adolph Eichmann.
With exceptionally rich performances by Klaussner and Zehrfeld, astute direction by Kraume, and a moody jazz score by Kaiser and Maas, THE PEOPLE VS. FRITZ BAUER offers an edgy twist on a story we have come to know all too well – the compromising of justice for the sake of serving the economic interests of a few.
Awards & Honors:
– Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, and Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
– Audience Award Winner at the Locarno International Film Festival
Special Guest: Andrew Nagorski, author of the upcoming book The Nazi Hunters (released May 2016 by Simon & Schuster); Annette Insdorf (professor in the Graduate Film Program of Columbia’s School of the Arts)
