Lev Cinema chain to screen controversial Hitler movie
By The Associated Press
The Lev Cinema chain has decided to show a controversial movie about Hitler to the local public after receiving positive feedback from viewers in a test screening, the company's owner said Tuesday.
Nurit Shani said 1,000 Israelis invited to a test screening last week voted overwhelmingly in favor of showing "Der Untergang" (The Downfall) to the public.
The German movie, which recounts Hitler's final days in a claustrophobic Berlin bunker, has been criticized for its humanizing portrait of the Nazi leader, who is seen stroking dogs and chatting amiably with female aides.
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"Hitler and the Third Reich played a major role in the history of our nation," said Shani. "I think it's very curious, very interesting for the Israeli audience, dealing with this phenomenon of a tyrant ... who had a desire to rule the world and above all to cleanse Europe of the Jewish nation."
About 280,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel.
Shani, whose parents and in-laws escaped the Holocaust, said she was well aware of the sensitivity of the subject.
"But I'm not going to avoid it, because we can't ignore it. Furthermore, I'm not a censor. I hate censorship." So far, she said she has only received positive reactions to her decision to show the film.
Shani, who also owns Shani Films, the distributor of the movie, said the film would open in three Israeli cities on May 19. To avoid offending anyone, she said she wanted to wait until after Holocaust Memorial Day on May 5 before showing the film. Eventually, she hopes to screen the film at all seven of her theaters.
Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he was not overly concerned about the showing of the movie, though he said he would probably not see it.
"I normally prefer that censorship not be employed in issues like this," Zuroff said. "I would hope people will vote with their feet and prefer not to see the movie."
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Bruno Ganz as Hitler, Der Untergang describes the last days of the Third Reich in April 1945 from the viewpoint of Traudl Junge, the secretary who took down Hitler's will and told her story in a documentary released shortly before her death in 2002. It was nominated for an Academy Award in the best foreign-language film category
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