Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss

Though almost forgotten today, Veit Harlan was one of Nazi Germany's most notorious filmmakers. Millions all across occupied Europe saw his films, the most infamous of which was the horrific anti-Semitic propaganda film Jew Süss - required viewing for all SS members. An unrepentant and blindly obsessive craftsman, no figure - save for Leni Riefenstahl - is as closely associated with the cinema of the Holocaust years as that of Joseph Goebbels' top director (Quentin Tarantino used Harlan's 1945 epic Kolberg as the basis for Inglourious Basterds' pivotal film-within-a-film Stolz der Nation.) Harlan was also the only artist from the Nazi era to be charged with war crimes. With never-before-seen archival footage, unearthed film excerpts, rare home movies and new interviews, Harlan is a searing portrait of the controversial filmmaker and an eye-opening examination of World War II film history. But it also shows how Veit Harlan's family - especially the youngest generation - struggles with the dark myth of his artistic immorality. It's the story of a German family from the Third Reich to the present, one that is marked by reckoning, denial and liberation.