Radical Evil

Name: Radical Evil
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Released: 2013

Stefan Ruzowitzky 2013

“We were only following orders.” This remarkable film asks why Nazi soldiers agreed to do what they did, exploring how killing became a routine, how these men managed to excuse themselves, how they were manipulated by their leaders. It’s the blueprint of a genocide. We hear the killers’ thoughts as they wrote them down in letters and diaries at the time, and what they said in court years later. RADICAL EVIL is marked by Oscar®-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s scenic transformations and DoP Benedict Neuenfel’s development of a unique visual language.

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Radical Evil
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Radical evil
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Running Time:

92 min.

Spoken Languages:

English, German

Subtitles:

English, German

Directors:

Stefan Ruzowitzky

Producers:

Wolfgang Richter

Cinematographers:

Benedict Neuenfels

Editors:

Barbara Gies

Production Companies:

docMovie

Press

Video Librarian

Drawing on comments from modern authors (Robert Jay Lifton, Dave Grossman etc.) and Nuremberg lawyer Benjamin Ferencz, along with classic psychological experiments, the documentary describes how basic human pathologies of conformity, persuasion, propaganda, desensitization, and deferred responsibility led to “radical evil” (a phrase borrowed from Kant). What is most disquieting here is the suggestion that this wasn't some malicious sorcery unique to Hitler and European anti-Semitism, but could happen in other societies as well. Highly recommended.
The Independent

Ruzowitzky suggests there was nothing unique about the Nazi killers – and that we might all have done the same in their place.

Geoffrey Macnab
Münchner Abendzeitung

(from German) A harrowing mix of fiction and historical material, shows how completely normal young men could become war criminals. Not a boring lesson, but a rousing beacon for the future too, because the psychology of the perpetrators does not change

Margaret Köhler
The German Board of Film Evaluation / FBW

(from German) An impressive and harrowing film about perpetrators who also became victims of a system that was radically evil. An intelligently prepared documentary with its own stylistic concept and important new insights into the human psyche

Press Release

Festival Participation

Jerusalem Film Festival - 2014
Winner Jewish Experience Award
Bergen International Film Festival - 2014
Miami Jewish Film Festival - 2014
Berlin International Film Festival - 2014
Festival of Tolerance - 2015

Additional Materials

Distribution Company

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