How do normal young men turn into mass murderers? Why do respectable family men kill women, children and babies, day in and day out, for years? Why do so few of them refuse to follow orders, although they are given the option? Using a stylistically innovative approach, Stefan Ruzowitzky‘s nonfiction-drama „Radical Evil“ tells of the systematic shooting of Jewish civilians by German death squads in Eastern Europe and searches for the root of evil.
We hear the thoughts of the perpetrators in letters, diaries and court reports, we look into young faces that are projection screens for our associations and insights. Supplemented by historical photographs, the statements of widely renowned researchers , such as Père Desbois, Christopher Browning or Robert Jay Lifton, and with the surprising results of psychological experiments, the film leads us to „radical evil“, a blueprint for genocide.
„Especially Valuable“ FBW – The German Board of Film Evaluation
