• Title:
• Just an Ordinary Jew

• Director:
• Oliver Hirschbiegel

• German with English subtitles

• Germany , 90 minutes

• Venue:
• Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema and
  Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1   Show 2  

A polite invitation from a semi-anonymous teacher requesting a Jew to visit his social studies class inspires its recipient, Hamburg-based journalist Emanuel Goldfarb (Ben Becker of The Comedian Harmonists and Gloomy Sunday) to compose a letter of refusal that transforms into a one-man debate on the post-1945 German-Jewish relationship. This darkly humorous tour de force is a linguistic assault on politically correct “tolerance” and a spleen-venting critique of the subtle and not-so-subtle cultural attitudes that continue to mark German Jews as “others.”  Goldfarb also focuses his razor-sharp intellect inward, dissecting his own shortcomings as he strives to become “an ordinary German.”  From his childhood amidst the ghosts of lost relatives, to a failed marriage, his simple letter of refusal attempts to synthesize a life replete with contradictions. Just an Ordinary Jew is a striking follow-up for Oliver Hirschbiegel, the Academy Award-nominated director of Downfall.

CO-SPONSORED BY the Goethe-Institut Washington, the Embassy of Switzerland and Generation After

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1   Show 2