The Specialist (Un specialiste, portrait d'un criminel moderne) (NR)

synopsis

On May 11, 1960, 40 years ago, Adolf Eichmann, a leading player in the Holocaust, is captured by the Israeli Secret Service in Argentina, where he has been living for ten years as "Ricardo Klement." One year later he is put on trial, the Israelis hire noted American documentarian Leo Hurwitz who shoots 350 hours of videotape, from which filmmakers Eyal Sivan and Rony Bauman have constructed "The Specialist." SS Lieutenant Colonel Eichmann, a specialist in transportation of freight via railroad, gives the classic excuse that he was just following orders. Philosopher Hannah Arendt says of this little man who wears glasses and a quizzical expression, who seems no more brutal than the family accountant: "His normality is much more terrifying than all atrocities." He personifies "the banality of evil."