Film screening this Friday (17 December)
This coming Friday 17 December, there is a joint screening with the Birkbeck Law Society of “The Specialist: Portrait of a Modern Criminal”, a 1999 film produced and directed by Eyal Sivan, a Paris-based Israeli film-maker and critic.
Thanks to this cooperation, entry is free to Birkbeck Film Society members and Birkbeck Law Society members. For non-members, there is a entry fee of £ 3.50. Refreshments will be available from 6.15, and please note the slightly later than usual starting time of 6.45.
“The Specialist” is a film inspired by Hannah Arendt’s controversial book, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”. Sivan has brought together black-and-white footage taken at the time of the 1961 trial of the Nazi SS officer and war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
The New York Times called the film “an amazing document…. The prosecutors, led by the cool Israeli attorney general, Gideon Hausner … make their case with a startling lack of courtroom theatrics.... When Hausner, addressing the judges, says that Eichmann ‘was born human but lived like a beast in the jungle’ and proves this truth, point by point, the movie succeeds on much quieter -- and more frightening -- terms.”
We are particularly fortunate that Eyal Sivan will be attending the screening and participating in the discussion afterwards.