alr

The Specialist

Director in Person
$12 Special Event Tickets
Directed by Eyal Sivan.
France/Israel, 1999, 35mm, black & white, 129 min.
Hebrew and German with English subtitles.
Print source: Memento Films

The historical 1961 trial of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem was filmed by by American filmmaker Leo Hurwitz’s television crew. The riveting footage, comprising some 350 hours, has been little seen since its original broadcast in Israel and the US. Sivan has carefully selected and edited two hours of this footage, subtly manipulating images and adding sound to craft an essay film inspired by Hannah Arendt’s groundbreaking book about the trial, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Sivan’s version points out the difference between the prosecution’s description of Eichmann as a blood-thirsty murderer and the Eichmann in the courtroom, who was something perhaps even more frightening: a seemingly ordinary bureaucrat who spent years carrying out genocide. 

00:00 / 00:00
      The Specialist introduction and post-screening discussion with David Pendleton and Eyal Sivan.

      Part of film series

      Read more

      The Clockwork of Power. Three Films by Eyal Sivan

      Current and upcoming film series

      Read more

      The Reincarnations of Delphine Seyrig

      Read more

      Ben Rivers, Back to the Land

      Read more

      Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

      Read more

      Make Way for Tomorrow. Carson Lund’s Eephus

      Read more

      Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Collective Monologue

      Read more

      David Lynch, New Dimensions

      Read more

      Museum Hours: Mati Diop’s Dahomey

      Read more

      Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

      Read more

      Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy