Watching the Pianist was very emotional. I had never seen the film before, and although I knew it was about the Holocaust, I was not expecting to be so sad at the end. And this is despite the ‘happy’ ending in which the protagonist survives. The experiences he had to face, especially being separated from his family, made the ending very bittersweet. He had his life, but nothing else.
The talk with GRF Magdala afterwards was also very intimate. We discussed how Nazi Germany was able to reach the state it was at during the Holocaust, and how people who helped Jewish citizens were going against the law. Much life the Rose Cafe with Angela Cornell, we discussed how morality and legality seldom match. Although Magdala did not explicitly draw parallels between Hitler and Trump, it was hard not to infer from the talk. The bigotry that Trump incited is similar to how Hitler enabled nazis (white nationalists) in their hatred. I left the talk teary-eyed and even more distraught for the future. But it was a great movie nonetheless, and I do not regret my attendance.