SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Benas Mcloughlin
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Harlan - Im Schatten von Jud Süss" is a German-language 100-minute movie from 8 years ago. It is probably the most known work by writer and director Felix Moeller. The topic here is the title character: Veit Harlan, a German filmmaker during the days of Nazi German back in the 1930s and 1940s. What Leni Riefenstahl was for documentaries is what Harlan was to fiction films and probably in an even more serious way as he is the filmmaker behind the most infamous Nazi propaganda movie "Jud Süß" that was ordered by the German government in their attempts to make Jews look like the evil guys in order to push their ways of killing millions of Jews in concentration camps and get the support from the people for their genocide.In this documentary here, we find out mostly how Harlan's children and grandchildren see their ancestor today with all they know about him. Some are critical and put the blame on him, some seek to justify, other prepare not to say a whole lot at all. Overall this was a pretty good documentary that is worth seeing for everybody with an interest in the years of Nazi Germany. I believe, however, it is absolutely essential to be aware who Veit Harlan is and you probably either should have seen "Jud Süß" to understand the context or at least know a lot about the film. The scenes from the movie in this documentary help for sure, but I don't think they are sufficient to help people understand the context completely if they are not aware with the film "Jud Süß" or the director Veit Harlan. But then again, why would they this documentary if they don't care about the subject. I personally enjoyed this more than the Tobias Moretti movie as it is so close to Harlan's family and their insights add a lot more than any expert could due to their family history background. A well-crafted work. Go see it.
sergepesic
The , always, unfortunate marriage of art and propaganda, can be quite dangerous. Veit Harlan, pet director of notorious Goebels, played with the devil and seemingly survived. He escaped the prosecution and continued to make his overblown kitschy movies and got to expel his last breath in the Isle of Capri in Italy. This excellent documentary is focused on the impact that person like that have on his descdendants. They all seem to be deeply affected with it, even the one son who refuses to say anything bad about him. There is a French granddaughter, and the Italian grandson, a niece married to Stanley Kubrick. And all, even almost 50 years after his death still paying the price for his misdeeds. The sins of fathers and so forth... Movie well worth seeing.
MartinHafer
Had this documentary only been about Veit Harland and his infamous film "Jud Süß", it would have been well worth seeing. However, the film goes one step further--and that makes it such a memorable film."Jud Süß" was a virulent anti-Jewish propaganda sponsored by the Nazis and shown throughout Germany and occupied Europe. Its aim was to galvanize the populace against the Jews and thereby make it easier to exterminate them. This film shows a few clips from this film and the first part is a biography about the director, Veit Harlan. It talks about his life and career before making this film as well as after--and especially about the repercussions in his life following the war because of his pro-Nazi work.All this is very interesting. However, what makes the film much more interesting is that the people who made the documentary were able to assemble so many family members to talk about Veit and his work. His surviving children and grandchildren are interviewed and their reactions are varied and extremely interesting. Some, such as one of his sons, were very close-mouthed--refusing to say anything against their father. However, this was the exception to the rule. Most seemed open to talk and what really fascinated me were the lengths to which several of them went to change their lives in an attempt to undo or make recompense for Veit's actions. Two daughters married Jewish men, a son married a Jewish woman. This same son went from the far-right fascism to an ardent anti-fascist--even ultimately embracing communism! And his grandkids weren't exempt from the impact of Veit's life upon them--with one granddaughter now living in France and dealing with strong feelings of guilt and shame. Many more interesting interviews and personalities are in this film--and it's filled with wonderful psychological portraits that would merit re-watching. Exceptional and truly fascinating.
kosmasp
And of course the shadow. The thing is, that there is not that much light into the matter. All relatives of the director of the infamous "Jud Süß", the propaganda film of the Nazi Regime, talk here. And they have different opinions on the movie and their father (or grandfather in some cases).The question if he knew what was going on will not be entirely solved though. If that is what you are looking for you will be disappointed. In general, there is not that much information you will gain from this documentary. It will tell you how some people felt about the movie, what happened in some years, but I am missing the depth. What I did like, was the fact, that there still is some controversy amongst the siblings (some even defending the choice of Harlan, when he made the movie).It is difficult for a filmmaker and it must have been even more difficult. It's just a shame there was never a complete reveal of what happened. Was it the Regime that made him do it or did he believe what he was filming too? If the latter is true, than he was a criminal too. It seems we will never know for sure. I hope that they will make a documentary about the dilemma of directors though that shines a light on this subject once more
