Das radikal Böse
The Ultimate Bad
Why do normal people become mass murderers? Why do decent family fathers kill women,children and babies on a daily basis? The perpetrators are members of the Nazi death squads,who killed about 2 million Jewish civilians in Eastern Europe – by bullets, face to face. We hear their thoughts, as they wrote them down in letters and diaries, we hear what they said at court: Why they did not refuse to execute these horrific orders,how killing became a routine, how they managed to excuse themselves, how they were manipulated by their leaders. It’s the blueprint of a genocide.
A panel of psychologists, historians and genocide experts helps us to understand: among them Benjamin Ferencz, chief prosecutor of the “Einsatzgruppen”-trial in Nuremberg, Christopher Browning, author of the acclaimed Holocaust-study Ordinary Men, Robert Jay Lifton, one of the proponents of “Psycho history” and the French Père Patrick Debois, tireless researcher of the “Shoah par balles” in the former Soviet-Union.
Would we have acted differently? How to overcome our readiness for conformity, obedience and violence? Is there individual guilt, if these horrible patterns are all too "human"? How to prevent genocides in the future? The film essay "The Ultimate Bad" is an extraordinary film, a documentary on the one hand but also marked by Oscar®-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s scenic transformations for which the film’s DoP Benedict Neuenfels has developed a unique visual language.
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men.” Primo Levi
Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH
Credits
Director
Screenplay
Director of photography
Editing
Music
Production company
Producer
Alle Credits
Director
Assistant director
Screenplay
based on
Director of photography
Assistant camera
Production design
Make-up artist
Editing
Sound
Music
Voice
Production company
in co-production with
Producer
Co-Producer
Unit production manager
Location manager
Original distributor
Shoot
- Kasernengelände der US Armee Hanau, Frankfurt am Main, Bremen, Paris, Bibrka (Ukraine), Potsdam, USA
FSK-Prüfung (DE): 02.08.2013, 140202, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei
Uraufführung (DE): 25.10.2013, Hof, Internationale Filmtage;
Kinostart (DE): 16.01.2014;
TV-Erstsendung (DE): 01.05.2015, ZDF
Titles
- Weiterer Titel (DE) Das Böse - Ganz normale Männer
- Originaltitel (DE) Das radikal Böse
Versions
Original
FSK-Prüfung (DE): 02.08.2013, 140202, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei
Uraufführung (DE): 25.10.2013, Hof, Internationale Filmtage;
Kinostart (DE): 16.01.2014;
TV-Erstsendung (DE): 01.05.2015, ZDF
Awards
- Dokumentarfilm des Monats
- Prädikat: besonders wertvoll