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Go See Vanessa Lapa's Movie About Heinrich Himmler

"The Decent One" is Israeli filmmaker Vanessa Lapa's remarkable profile of Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Nazi extermination policy and death camps. The film, which opened Oct. 1, is based on a recently discovered cache of the Gestapo chief's diaries, letters and photographs. It reveals Himmler to be delusional, a man who thought himself to be heroic and was in reality devoid of morality. Himmler expresses this goal: "We can have but one desire as to what is said about us these German officers, these German soldiers – they were decent." Despite its title, this film will never allow that statement to be made about Himmler himself. The documentary's dispassionate tone makes Himmler's heinous behavior even more shocking. This is not an easy watch, but it is truly gripping and an extremely well made and important film.

Filmmaker Joanna Lipper's "The Supreme Price" follows political activist Hafsat Abiola from her studies at Harvard to her homeland of Nigeria, where she is heroic in her determination to realize the democratic ideals of her parents. Her father is MKO Abiola, elected as Nigeria's president in 1993 but then imprisoned by a military coup, and her mother Kudrat Abiola, who assumed leadership of the prodemocracy movement after her husband's imprisonment and was then assassinated. With extraordinary access to her lead character and other key players, Lipper reveals the depth of the corruption and violence that dominates politics in Africa's oil rich and most populous nation.

"Bitter Honey" is anthropologist/filmmaker Robert Lemelson's heartbreaking documentary about Balinese polygamous marriages – the film follows three families for seven years -- in which wives suffer the tragic results of physical and psychological abuse and dire economic hardships from which they cannot escape. Yes, modern day slavery does exist.

Read entire article at Women's eNews