WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY FELIX MOELLER

“Fascinating and troubling. (Harlan did) in fiction what Leni Riefenstahl did in documentary –
to exalt an overwhelming mob united in thrall to its leader – and also to have celebrated an ecstatic cult of death.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“A searing portrait of the controversial filmmaker and an eye-opening examination of World War II film history.
The story of a German family from the Third Reich to the present, one that is marked by reckoning, denial and liberation.”
–Miranda Siegel, New York magazine

“… weaves together generous archival material – home movies, photographs and clips from JEW SÜSS –
and original talking-head interviews with assorted Harlan family members, including his son Thomas,
a fascinating figure who could easily be the subject of his own documentary… largely interesting and thought-provoking.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times


“CRITICS’ PICK!” – Time Out New York

“(A film about ) thirteen people who… whether they still bear the name Harlan or not,
are descendants of the man who made one of the most successfully vicious of all Nazi films…
The result is a fearfully fascinating, disturbing picture. Once again history devolves into irony.”
– Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

“Riveting! Felix Moeller offers a remarkably dense and detailed portrait of the ways in which
Harlan’s most egregious film has riven his family. Moeller offers no final verdict on Harlan’s guilt, but the anger,
pain and disdain of his offspring are a more severe indictment than any court could hand down.”
– George Robinson, Jewish Week

“Felix Moeller’s terrific documentary cleverly shifts the discourse [on Harlan]
and concentrates more on the director’s family, subtly exploring the questions of guilt and filial devotion
while keeping the man’s monstrous legacy front and center.”
– Jay Weissberg, Variety

The infamous JEW SÜSS (1940), directed by Veit Harlan, and produced under Joseph Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda, was the Nazis’ most vicious anti-Semitic film. A drama set in 18th century Germany, it purports to tell the true story of a Jew who dresses incognito (as a Christian), corrupts a local Duke, restructures the government to bleed the people through punitive taxes, and forces himself upon a beautiful, married Christian woman (played by Kristina Söderbaum, Harlan’s third wife). At the war’s end, the filmmaker was prosecuted for crimes against humanity, but acquitted. Today, his children and grandchildren consider his legacy and the hard questions it continues to pose. Some have changed their name and left Germany. Others claim he was forced to direct the film and deride it as loathsome, crudely-made propaganda. HARLAN is a fascinating exploration into the murky waters of a family’s unique, disturbing relationship to one of history’s worst crimes.
With support from the Joan S. Constantiner Fund for Jewish and Holocaust Film

Listen to our podcast:
Q & A with filmmaker FELIX MOELLER and film subject Veit Harlan's granddaughter JESSICA JACOBY
(Recorded March 3, 2010)

GERMANY • 2009 • 99 MINS • IN GERMAN, FRENCH & ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES • ZEITGEIST FILMS

Click here for higher res version

Requires QUICKTIME - Click here to download