Controversial Nazi film released in Germany
A controversial new movie telling the story behind an anti-Semitic film made in 1940 has been released in Germany.
Jud Suss - A Film without Conscience looks at why the earlier film, also called Jud Suss, was a huge success under the Nazi regime.
It focuses on the leading actor's decision to join the cast, suggesting he was forced into it by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
The original movie was banned in 1945.
It is still kept under lock and key in the German film archives, and can only be screened if accompanied by a lecture to make clear its historical context.
Offensive stereotypes
The new "making of" film proved controversial when it was screened at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, says BBC World Service arts reporter Vincent Dowd.
The general release will allow the German public to make up its own mind, he adds.
It is set in the Third Reich, where actor Ferdinand Marian, not yet a star, has to decide whether to accept or reject the lead role in a highly anti-Semitic version of the Joseph Suss story.
The real-life Joseph Suss Oppenheimer was a Jewish financier executed in Stuttgart in 1738....
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Jud Suss - A Film without Conscience looks at why the earlier film, also called Jud Suss, was a huge success under the Nazi regime.
It focuses on the leading actor's decision to join the cast, suggesting he was forced into it by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
The original movie was banned in 1945.
It is still kept under lock and key in the German film archives, and can only be screened if accompanied by a lecture to make clear its historical context.
Offensive stereotypes
The new "making of" film proved controversial when it was screened at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, says BBC World Service arts reporter Vincent Dowd.
The general release will allow the German public to make up its own mind, he adds.
It is set in the Third Reich, where actor Ferdinand Marian, not yet a star, has to decide whether to accept or reject the lead role in a highly anti-Semitic version of the Joseph Suss story.
The real-life Joseph Suss Oppenheimer was a Jewish financier executed in Stuttgart in 1738....