FORUM THE SPECIALIST (1999)
EYAL SIVAN
The Specialist (documentary, 128 minutes) by Eyal Sivan is screened Thursday May 19th, Tuesday May 31st and Thursday June 16th at 7 PM as part of the exhibition project The Bergen Accords curated by Sarah Rifky.
Inspired by Hannah Arendt's controversial book Eichmann in Jerusalem, report on the banality of evil, Eyal Sivan presents the The Specialist, a documentary film, drawn entirely from 350 hours of rare footage, edited to present the incredible trial of a most ordinary man, Adolf Eichmann, the chief of SS transportation who was largely responsible for the logistics of the "Final Solution." The trial takes place in Jerusalem in 1961.
The Specialist is a straight-forward and matter-of-fact presentation of the modern criminal. It is about obedience and responsibility, the terror of ordinariness to the ends of indifference towards facing evil, while being confronted with the confused rage of witnesses testifying against a perpetrator of the Third Reich.