The film you’re human was created to generate interest in Jewish writer Hannah Arendt’s controversial idea of ‘the banality of evil’, coined in Arendt’s report on Adolf Eichmann’s trial.(Arendt, 1963) In the report, Arendt sought to discredit the idea that the Nazis were psychopathic and different from ‘normal’ people. She argued Eichmann was an example of ‘the banality of evil’; his actions were motivated by complacency rather than maliciousness, and said complacency is not as unusual as many would like to think. The film tapped into the shock value of Nazi atrocities and juxtaposed the abhorrence with a simplified version of Arendt’s response, eliciting strong emotional response and engagement. The inherent controversy and apparent contradiction would ideally make the viewer question how someone could arrive at her conclusion, and motivate the viewer to try and understand one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.(Passerin d’Entreves, 2021)
Arendt, H. (1963). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Viking Press.
Passerin d’Entreves, M. (2021). Hannah Arendt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 22 April 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/.
The Banality of Evil 