Law on Film

This episode looks at The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s haunting exploration of surveillance, complicity, and the brittle architecture of authoritarian legality in the final years of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany). The critically acclaimed 2006 film examines how law can be co-opted into an instrument of domination, how bureaucratic routines of “security” normalize repression, and how small acts of resistance acquire profound moral weight under systems built on fear and an extensive system of informers. The Lives of Others raises enduring questions about the ethics of observing and informing in Cold War Eastern Europe. To help unpack these themes, I’m joined by Mark Drumbl and Barbara Holá, whose recent book Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (Oxford Univ. Press) offers a deeply researched, empirically grounded look at informers within repressive regimes and transitional justice processes. 

Timestamps:

0:00      Introduction
4:23       East Germany in 1984
6:32.      The timelessness of informing
7:35.      The surveillance state in the Eastern bloc
13:27      Informers and informing
19:36.    Informing's afterlife
23:26    The book’s methodology and illustrative cases
33:26    The corrosive impact on social relations
35:02    Who becomes an informant and why
38:22    Informers and transitional justice
44:57    The opening of the secret files
50:39    Informers and agents
55:54    Resistance and historical revisionism
1:00:46 How the book came about

Further reading:
Ash, Timothy Garton, The File (1997)
Burkhard, Bilger, “Piecing Together the Secrets of the Stasi,” The New Yorker (May 27, 2024)
Cords, Suzzane, “Stasi: How the GDR kept its citizens under surveillance,” DW (Aug. 1, 2025)
Drumbl, Mark A. & Holá, Barbora, Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (2024)
Alford, C. Fred, Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power (2001)
Lindenberger, Thomas, “Stasiploitation: Why Not? The Scriptwriter’s Historical Creativity in ‘The Lives of Others,’” 31 (3) German Studies Review 557 (2008)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at [email protected]
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

The Killing Fields (1984), directed by Roland Joffe, depicts the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia and the genocide that followed, which resulted in the death of approximately 2-3 million people. The film is based on the experiences of New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson) and Cambodian journalist Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor). It provides a haunting depiction of mass violence as well as a moving story about these two colleagues and friends. In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia, it is worth revisiting a film that is as powerful and relevant today as when it was released.
Timestamps:
0:00      Introduction
2:16       The Khmer Rouge and Year Zero
6:04      The U.S. contribution to the Cambodian genocide
8:14        The role of journalists in Cambodia and conflict zones
17:34      The treatment of journalists under international law
18:46     The killing fields and the film’s impact
24:08    Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran, and journalistic ethics
34:10     The ECCC and transitional justice in Cambodia
42:44     Journalists and international criminal proceedings
47:50     Haing Ngor and his tragic fate
53:26     Civil society endeavors to bring history to life
55:21      The fall of Phnom Penh 
59:03    The failed attempt to get Dith Pran out
1:00:15  The risks facing journalists today
 
Further reading:  
Becker, Elizabeth, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (1988)
Brown, Mark, “Genocide Films, Public Criminology, Collective Memory,” 53 (6) The British Journal of Criminology (2013)   
Chandler, David P., The Pol Pot Regime (1991)
Kiernan, Ben, Genocide in Cambodia (Revised ed. 2008) 
Ngor, Haing (with Warner, Roger), Survival in the Killing Fields (1987)
Nunn, Nora, "Rose-Colored Genocide: Hollywood, Harmonizing Narratives, and the Cinematic Legacy,” 14(2) Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 65 (2020)
Schanberg, Sydney H., The Death and Life of Dith Pran (1985)
Shawcross, William, Sideshow (1979)
 
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at [email protected]
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

In Conclave (2024), Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizes a conclave to elect a new pope. Key candidates and factions vie with one another as the process plays out until finally a new pope is elected. The film was directed by Edward Berger from a script by Peter Straughan (based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris), and features an all-star cast including Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini. The film provides a window into the process for electing a new pope, along with the legal, historical, and political forces that have shaped it.  
Timestamps:
0.00    Introduction
2:32     The origins of the conclave
5:29    Electing a new pope
8:03    The College of Cardinals
10:23   The Apostolic Constitutions
14:46   The contentious conclave in the film
21:05   Naming a new cardinal in pectore
24:51    Leo XIV, the new pope
26:58   The Roman Curia
26:38   The nuns in the film
30:05  Symbol and ritual: the smoke from the chimney
32:17    The custom of a new pope choosing a name
36:55   Struggles over different visions of the church
40:58   How accurate was the film in capturing a conclave?
42:39   How the conclave has changed
45:04   Possible future changes to the papal selection process

Further reading:
Allen, John L. Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (2002)
Baumgartner, Frederic J., Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections (2003)
Harris, Robert, Conclave (2016)
Povoledo, Elisabetta, “A Papal Primer That’s Fiction, but Also Rings True,” N.Y. Times (Mar. 2, 2025)
West, Morris, L., The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at [email protected]
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Inglourious Basterds (2009), written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, revolves around two plots to assassinate Nazi leaders during the closing years of World War II. One plot centers on a secret band of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Ltn. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)—the “Basterds”—who terrorize Nazis. The other involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who narrowly escapes death at the hands of notorious “Jew hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and flees to Paris where she runs a cinema under a false identity. The plot lines converge at the Paris cinema where the Basterds and Shosanna are each separately plotting to kill Hitler and other Nazi leaders while they are attending the premiere of a German propaganda film. The film utilizes alternate history to explore themes surrounding the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators of mass atrocities and the complex relationship between law and vengeance.
Timestamps:
0:00    Introduction
2:37     Reimagining the arc of justice
8:00     Alternatives to the progress narrative
16:51     The power of violence and revenge
21:56     Counterfactuals and alternative histories
27:03     The limits of legalistic responses to atrocities
32:24     The role of cinema in Nazi Germany
39:00     Narratives of progress
44:10     Ending with a primal moment of revenge 
 Further reading:
Hussain, Nadine, “‘Inglorious Basterds’: A Satirical Criticism of WWII Cinema and the Myth of the American War Hero,” 13(2) Inquiries Journal 1 (2021)
Jackson, Robert H., Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson Center (Nov. 21, 1945)
James, Caryn, “Why Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece,” BBC (Aug. 16, 2019)
Keydar, Renana, “‘Lessons in Humanity’: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post 9/11 Era,” 17 (2) J. Int’l Criminal Justice 229 (2019)
Kligerman, Eric. “Reels of Justice: Inglourious Basterds, The Sorrow and the Pity, and Jewish Revenge Fantasies,” in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema (Robert Dassanowsky ed., 2012)
Tekay, Baran “Transforming Cultural Memory: ‘Inglourious Basterds’”, 48(1) Film Criticism (2024)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at [email protected]
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles, 2024) is based on the true story of the enforced disappearance and murder of former congressman Rubens Paiva by the military dictatorship in Brazil. The film opens in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, where Rubens lives with his wife, Eunice, and their five children. Their lives are forever altered when the military government arrests and disappears Rubens. The film describes Eunice’s attempt to find out what happened to Rubens and to rebuild her life and raise her family in his absence. The film is based on the memoir of their son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, who was a young boy when Rubens was disappeared. I’m Still Here provides a harrowing account of Brazil's military dictatorship and a moving story of a woman’s struggle to overcome adversity and obtain justice.

Timestamps:
0:00    Introduction
2:16     The military dictatorship in Brazil
4:38     Living amid contradictions
6:52     The kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador
8:33     Rubens’ arrest and disappearance
12:38   Authoritarian legality
14:18    The arrest and mistreatment of family members
17:16    Covering up state crimes
19:29    Exile as another tool of repression
23:08   Enforced disappearances
27:18     Leveraging international pressure
29:08   Eunice Paiva’s struggle and success
33:15    Support for the military dictatorship
36:01   Finally obtaining Rubens’ death certificate 25 years later
40:10   Brazil’s National Truth Commission
48:39   Authoritarian threats to democracy today
Further reading:
Atencio, Rebecca J., Memory’s Turn: Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil (2014)
Filho, Paulo Coehlo, “Truth Commission in Brazil: Individualizing Amnesty, Revealing the Truth,” The Yale Review of International Studies (Feb. 29, 2012)
Lima, Ana Gabriela Oliveira, “Corrected death certificates for Herzog, Rubens Paiva,and one hundred others are celebrated in a ceremony,” Folha de S. Paulo (Oct. 8, 2025)
Paiva, Marcelo Rubens, I’m Still Here (2025)
Pitts, Bryan, Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship (2023)
Weinberg, Eyal, “Transitional Justice in Brazil, 1970s–2010s,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia (2022)
 
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at [email protected]
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast