Noticias

Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Northern American rights for Joachim A. Lang’s historical drama Goebbels and The Führer (aka Führer and Seducer) for a fall 2024 theatrical and digital release.

Beta Cinema, which launched sales on the feature at the EFM and brokered the North America deal, has also posted new deals for France (Condor Entertainment), Hungary (Ads), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Greece (Tfg).

As previously announced, the film has also sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment). Wild Bunch will release the film in German-speaking territories on July 11.

The drama follows the rise and fall of Joseph Goebbels in the final seven years as Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda.

While Hitler is at the height of his power, Goebbels is the creator of the pictures of the flag-waving crowds and antisemitic films “Jud Süß” and “Der ewige Jude...

There was once a treacherous year in the spread of Jewish libels. Not surprisingly, violence against Jews rose during this time. There were depictions of Jews with enlarged noses and horns, bloodthirsty baby-killing Jews, Jews who dipped their enemies into molten gold, Jews depicted as vectors of disease, leeches on society and lecherous. That year, Jewish cemeteries and ritual baths were accused of poisoning wells. The year I’m referring to wasn’t during the Middle Ages or even 1930s Germany. It was what major TV shows, movies and newspaper articles in prestigious outlets featured in 2023.

If these descriptions shock you in our age of increased sensitivity towards marginalized groups, it’s because increased sensitivity never extended to Jewish representation. Neither did accommodations to Jews working in entertainment. In 2023, Jews were additionally represented as moneyed and scheming (“Cobra Kai”), benefiting from the slave trade (“You People”) and committing fraud (“The...

Review by Roger Carpenter

During the Nazi Regime’s reign over Germany and much of Europe, over 1,200 feature films were made. At least 100 of these films were blatant Nazi propaganda and, of those films, at least 40 of them are still kept from public viewing in Germany and Austria except under extraordinary circumstances.

These films include The Eternal Jew, an anti-Semitic documentary, The Rothschilds, which featured the Jewish Rothschilds family in a negative light, as well as Jew Sus, widely believed to be the most anti-Semitic film of all time, with director Veit Harlan actually standing trial for crimes against humanity after the war.

But 70 years on, do these films really retain the same impact as they did upon their initial release? Would people really take these films seriously? What impact might they have on children? These, and many other questions, are explored in this fascinating documentary about the Hitler-Goebbels propaganda film-making machine.

Plenty of films considered politically beyond the pale have been locked up, for reasons good and bad. A German filmmaker born decades after WW2 offers a documentary about the controversy over ‘sensitive’ Nazi films, the propaganda features that encouraged racial hatred and offered lies to support the Third Reich’s oppressive policies. We can easily visualize American neo-Nazis cheering the messages in these pictures. What’s the verdict? Let them loose or destroy them?

Forbidden Films: The Hidden Legacy of Nazi Film

DVD

Zeitgeist Films / Kino Lorber

2014 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 94 min. / Verboten Filme: das verdrängte erbe des Nazi-kinos / Street Date May 15, 2018 / available through /

Starring: Götz Aly, Stefan Drössler, Jörg Friess, Jörg Jannings, Egbert Koppe, Johanna Leibeneiner, Sylvie Lindeperg, Oskar Roehler, Rainer Rotehr, Sonja M. Schulz, Margaretha Von Trotta, Ernst Szebedits, Christiane Von Wahlert, Moshe Zimmerman.

Cinematography: Isabelle Casez, Aline László, Ludolph Weyer

Film Editor: Annette Muff

Additional Music: Björn Wiese

Produced by Amelie Latscha,...