Il coraggio di non dimenticare

Jewish law student in Paris, France 1960 begins dating a pretty German lass who, he quickly learns, falls into the "national amnesia" affecting everyone regarding the Nazi atrocities of WWII. After marrying and having a child, a newly-educated Beate (pronounced Bee-ah-tay) Klarsfeld makes it her foremost ambition to bring down the Nazi war-criminals still living freely throughout Europe...as well as Klaus Barbie, the monstrous SS Army Captain who successfully sought asylum in Bolivia under an assumed name. Handsomely-produced TV-movie starring Farrah Fawcett doesn't have the documentary style one might initially hope for, but it has something else: a tender-yet-gritty touch, as well as a big heart, which makes our headstrong heroine a three-dimensional character. Beate was a woman not hesitant to go out on the proverbial limb, and not just to cause a stir but to start a firestorm. She was sometimes labeled an attention seeker, she continually put herself in harm's way, and yet it was difficult for the press to criticize her when all she wanted to do was remove the shame from her German heritage. Fawcett is working seriously here and, though her German accent is a bit uneven, she does sterling work; even better are Tom Conti as her husband and Geraldine Page as an elderly woman whose loved ones were all slaughtered by Barbie. An absorbing, enlightening piece of history--not too glossy or sentimental--though one which has been forgotten (sadly) since its initial airing in 1986.