REVIEW: HANNAH ARENDT - FACING TYRANNY (DOCUMENTARY) ★★★★
HANNAH ARENDT - FACING TYRANNY (2025) is an American documentary about Hannah Arendt, one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, and the film is as fresh and new as they come. In fact, I’m watching a “fine cut” by award-winning editor Sabine Krayenbühl as we speak, but even though it’s still a work in progress the picture is very close to being locked and is thus eligible for a review at this point. Directed by EMMY award-winning documentary producer, director and writer Chana Gazit, in collaboration with EMMY award-winning director Jeff Bieber, the team behind this work is a powerful combination of talent, integrity, experience and historical insights.
The documentary currently clocking in at 1 hour, 22 min. is not necessarily made for the big screen, even though it could work in that format as well, but honestly, I would much rather watch it on my TV. It’s the kind of documentary that I absolutely love. The kind of documentary where you zap through numerous channels and tv-shows late at night and suddenly see this gem appear on your screen. Too often you see stuff on TV just to get entertained, which is probably why around 80% of my TV-consumption is documentaries, as it gives me the possibility to learn something new about the world.
That’s not always the case with fiction. However, it is indeed the case with this documentary. You can almost feel the historical gravity and while watching you can’t help thinking of the administration in charge of the US today and it’s basically impossible for your mind not to string together a series of similarities to the rise of Trump and the far-right movement and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. It may sound hyperbolic, but Trump has time and time again proven his admiration for Putin, Viktor Orbán and Kim Jong Un instead of Western leaders and two months into his presidency it’s abundantly clear that his authoritarian tendencies permeate every corner of his administration with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement literally kidnapping immigrants on the streets detaining them without due process, which is wildly illegal.
With the current administration in mind, as well as the historic context of the second World War the documentary introduces Hannah Arendt, a Jewish woman surrounded by antisemitism all her life, but who still managed to become one of the most fearless and prolific thinkers of the twentieth century. A woman who formulated the key questions of her generation: What Happened? Why did this happen? How did this happen? These are questions we’ve been trying to answer ever since Hitler rose to power and it all came to a head with the horror of the Holocaust – The Final Solution and the subsequent death of Hitler in a bunker where he cowardly took his own life.
The second World War changed the world forever and on May 14, 1948, the Jewish State was created, but before all of this happened, Hannah Arendt, a Jewish baby girl was born in Germany in 1906. Growing up she was early on exposed to the environment of her politically progressive secular family and it set her on a path to become one of the biggest political theorists and philosophers of the twentieth century. Surviving both wars she fled to the US in 1941 at age 35, as the rise of Hitler and antisemitism made in increasingly dangerous to be a Jew in Europe, but the US had its own kind of rising totalitarianism in the form of the McCarthy era and the persecution of government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists who - often falsely - were deemed to be under communist and Soviet influence. McCarthy installed a fear in the American population using propaganda and lies to justify their absolute overreach and blatant tyranny – does it remind you anyone?
Hannah Arendt decided to fight totalitarianism, not by taking up arms, but using her mind. Her intricate philosophical thoughts and theories on the subject matter were unleashed in the form of books and publications like “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, “The Human Condition” and “On Revolution”. As it turned out her perspectives on the elements of totalitarianism survived through the decades and she is now widely regarded as one of the great thinkers of twentieth century.
Hannah Arendt died in 1975, but her influence and thoughts paved the way for this documentary that uses a wide range of footage and interviews with Hannah herself, as well as numerous historians. The visually fragmented style is held together by Sabine Krayenbühl’s experienced editing in part using the dramatized voice over of Hannah Arendt that in her own words bind the historical events together. Events too complex to encapsulate in one review and in one documentary, but ”Hannah Arendt - Facing Tyranny” is a welcoming edition of professionally made documentaries that investigates the origins of totalitarian movements. And with a coherent structure and relevant footage that closely follows in her footsteps, the documentary succeeds in giving us a thorough journey into the life of Hannah Arendt and presents us with the historical surroundings that shaped her thoughts and Jewish identity.
The documentary is set to be broadcasted on the acclaimed PBS series, American Masters, SWR in Germany, and distributed worldwide in 2025, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Arendt’s death and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Chana Gazit on IMDb / Jeff Bieber on IMDb / Sabine Krayenbühl on IMDb
