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Germany · 2005
1h 25m
Director Malte Ludin
Starring
Genre Documentary, Drama
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German director Malte Ludin examines the impact of Nazism on his family as he investigates the life of his father, who was convicted and executed as a Nazi war criminal. Comprising interviews with family members, Ludin attempts to uncover the myths that circulate around the man who served as the Third Reich’s ambassador to Slovakia.
Malte's discomforting interviews with his siblings, supplemented by surreally matter-of-fact, Zelig-like photos of Hanns in Hitler's company, make for gripping and confrontational viewing. Yet the harder he persists, the less clear it is what he wants from his family.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
If it tells, in Mr. Ludin’s words, "a typical German story," the movie also offers an unusually matter-of-fact picture of the private and public effects of ordinary evil.
Sixty years after World War II, descendants of a prominent Nazi responsible for implementing Hitler's policies in Slovakia reignite debate over their heritage in emotional docu 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Some of this is elemental psychology; blood is thicker than water, etc. But the movie also reveals how the privileged class ignored, condoned or denied the reality of the Holocaust.
German filmmaker Malte Ludin's gripping documentary about the father he barely knew is both an extraordinary exercise in family history and an example of what Germans call Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung: "facing the past," particularly the years of Hitler's Third Reich.
German guilt gets a vigorous workout in the penetrating and symbolically important documentary Two or Three Things I Know About Him.
Even though 2 Or 3 Things' central irony is blunt, Ludin's tone remains measured throughout, and never self-serving.
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