The Lost Honor of Katherine Blum

Director: Margarethe von Trotta
(1975)

Margarethe von Trotta’s landmark film, co-directed by Volker Schlondorff serves as a warning about the dangers of irresponsible journalism as an average woman spends one evening with a suspected terrorist and finds her private life made public in very shocking ways. Von Trotta’s typical movie themes of socialism and authority abuse are made abundantly clear through a smear campaign started by a propagandist newspaper operating via yellow journalism and police determined to squeeze any information she may know out of this otherwise unassuming woman. Based on the novel by Heinrich Boll, the politically charged film is very relevant today in this era of post 9/11 paranoia and the audience is sucked right in and reminded of Silkwood until realizing at the end that it’s ultimately a manipulative (but effective) work of fiction.