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8
MONDAY
Grudges are hard to let go of. Just ask Aaron Reichenbach (Maximilian Schell), whose attack on an elderly gentleman in the opening scene of Fons Rademakers’ 1989 film The Rose Garden initially seems like a random act of violence. As he refuses to speak to authorities, Aaron’s background and motives are slowly unearthed by the determination of his defense attorney Gabrielle (Liv Ullmann), who learns that the two men’s history goes all the way back to World War II. Schell is riveting in an almost mute performance, as he ever-so-slowly manages to elicit sympathy for his desperate, disheveled character. And Ullmann shines as a strong career woman and mother unwilling to let dirty secrets be swept under the carpet. Based on an actual case of medical experimentation and murder committed against a group of children in the final days of the Third Reich, Rademakers’ film deals with the impossibility of forgetting—or forgiving—the crimes of the past. The film screens as part of the “Artur Brauner: A Dialogue About Humanity and Tolerance” series at 6:30 p.m. at the Goethe Institut’s Goethe-Forum, 812 7th St. NW. $5. (202) 289-1200. (Jason Powell)