• Title:
• Who Killed Walter Benjamin?

• Director:
• David Mauas

• Spanish, Catalan, English, Hebrew, German, and French w/ English subtitles

• Spain/The Netherlands, 73 minutes

• Venue:
• Goethe-Institut Washington

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1  

North American Premiere

According to the “official” version of events, on September 25, 1940 famed writer, critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin committed suicide in the Spanish frontier-town of Portbou after crossing the Pyrenees to escape the Nazis, only to be forbidden from continuing to Lisbon because of a change in Spanish legislation. He was to be deported back to France, a fate he escaped by taking his own life. But key elements of this story did not line-up for Filmmaker David Mauas—like the fact that the official paperwork ruled Benjamin had died of “natural causes,” and that the chronology of when he took the fatal dose of morphine did not jibe with his time of death. Mauas consults with widely respected Benjamin scholars and visits with the residents of Portbou, many of whom suspect a cover-up by pro-Franco Fascists, to try and get to the bottom of Benjamin’s mysterious death. Perhaps the first ever film noir intellectual historical film, Mauas’ documentary is at once beguiling and enlightening.

CO-SPONSORED BY the Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Spain

Introduction: David Kaufmann, Associate Professor of English, George Mason University

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1  

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