Rialto World’s celebration of German cinema this month ends on a high, with Hannah Arendt, written and directed by leading German filmmaker and member of the New German Cinema movement, Margarethe von Trotta. Von Trotta began her career as an actress, working for directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Rainhard Hauff, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In the mid 70s she finally stepped behind the camera, co-directing The Lost Honor of Katharina Blumalong with Schlöndorff, her husband at the time. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum tells the story of a young woman that has an affair with a man she discovers is a terrorist. Politics and strong female protagonists would become features of von Trotta’s work, and her ability to grasp complex ideas on screen is very much present in her biography of the controversial German Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. This award-winning drama from 2012, is my first pick of the week.

Rialto World’s celebration of German cinema this month ends on a high, with Hannah Arendt, written and directed by leading German filmmaker and member of the New German Cinema movement, Margarethe von Trotta. Von Trotta began her career as an actress, working for directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Rainhard Hauff, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In the mid 70s she finally stepped behind the camera, co-directing The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum along with Schlöndorff, her husband at the time. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum tells the story of a young woman that has an affair with a man she discovers is a terrorist. Politics and strong female protagonists would become features of von Trotta’s work, and her ability to grasp complex ideas on screen is very much present in her biography of the controversial German Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. This award-winning drama from 2012, is my first pick of the week.

Monday 27^th July, 8.30pm… Hannah Arendt

Margarethe von Trotta and actress Barbara Sukowa worked together on Vision (2009), as well as the Palm D’Or nominated Rosa Luxemburg (1986). Like von Trotta, Sukowa was a protégée of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and made her feature film debut in his film Lola (1981). Since then, Sukowa has gone on to win Best Actress awards at the Cannes, Venice and Montreal Film Festivals as well as many other accolades, and it’s her nuanced performance that makes Hannah Arendt such a fascinating and thought provoking film. Von Trotta touches on Arendt’s past - her escape from Europe and her young years as a student – but the real focus on this film is Arendt’s polarising coverage of the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker. It was during this trial held in Jerusalem, that Arendt cloned the term the banality of evil, and her controversial thoughts on the trial and the role of the Jewish Council during the war created a devastating backlash. This isn’t a traditional drama, it’s a film about intellectual ideas and thoughts, and even though it lacks a normal dramatic arc, Von Trotta’s film is intense and thought provoking.

Friday 31^st July, 8.30pm … Grave of the Fireflies

The horror of war is explored in this 1986 animation that traces the harrowing story of two orphaned children trying to survive in Japan during World War II. Seita and his younger sister loose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe, and with their father in service to the Imperial Japanese Navy, are left to fend for themselves. Written and directed by Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies is an adaptation of the semi autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, who wrote the book as a personal apology to his sister who died from malnutrition during the war. Takahata took on the project because he wanted the youth of the 80s to understand what their parents had been through during the war. The protagonists might be children, but Grave of the Fireflies is a powerful and memorable antiwar film with themes and images are more suited to older kids and adults.

Saturday 1^st August … Fort Bliss

And to finish off my war themed highlights this week, is the family drama Fort Bliss. The difficulties of balancing a job and being a mother is something many women can relate to, and in this particular case, that mother is Maggie Swann (Michelle Monaghan), a solo parent and solider who has just returned home from a tour of Afghanistan. Swann receives a cold and distant welcome home from her five-year-old son, and has to readjust to normal life and being a mother again. Made on a small budget and shot over 21 days, writer director Claudia Myers also explores the difficulty of readjustment, the emotional strain of deployment, sexual assault and the impact of separation on the family. However, as she told Indiewire, at its heart, “Fort Bliss is the ultimate working mother story.”