Who killed Walter Benjamin…

Synopsis

In September 1940, after seven years of exile, Walter Benjamin crosses the Pyrenees in a desperate attempt to escape the Nazis.

According to the official version, Walter Benjamin did make it across the French-Spanish border successfully. But when he arrived in the Catalan town of Portbou, a sudden change in legislation impeded his entry into Spain and he was obliged to spend the night at a local hotel under the close vigilance of three guards, whose orders were to deport him the following morning.
In utter despair, Benjamin took his own life, swallowing an overdose of morphine. The local doctor, however, declared it a natural death and Benjamin was given a Catholic burial in the municipal cemetery, under a wrong name.
Did the doctor conceal some hidden cause of Benjamin’s death? Was there really a change of legislation? Was Walter Benjamin aware that Portbou was a pro-Franco town virtually occupied by the Nazis?

Who killed Walter Benjamin… reaches for answers among the suspicious circumstances of his death. Giving at the same time, a portrait of a frontier town anchored between two fronts, constant witness of evasion, persecution and false hopes.

Who killed Walter Benjamin… not just a reconstruction of a death but the living portrait of the scene of the crime.

Selected at

• Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya, Sitges, 2005
• Premi UAB de Cinema Assaig, Bellaterra, 2005
• Festival de Cine Español, Málaga, 2006
• Festival de Letteratura, Mantova, 2006
• Alcances, Muestra Cinematográfica del Atlántico, Cádiz, 2006
• CineEspaña, Festival de Cinema Espagnol de Toulousse, 2006
• Washington Jewish Film Festival, 2006
• Muestra Internacional de Cine Independiente de Mar del Plata, 2006
• Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, 2006
• Palermo Documentary Film Festival, Italy, 2007

Other screenings (summary)

• Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia
• Goethe Institut, Barcelona
• Institut Francés, Barcelona
• Filmtheater’t Hoogt, Utrecht
• Culturgest, Lisboa
• Tel Aviv Cinemateque, Tel Aviv
• Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
• Burns Film Center, Westchester
• Sala Truffaut, Modena
• Cine Club Fratelli Marx, Bologna
• Goethe Institut, Madrid
• Eiszeit Kino, Berlin
• Centro Mazziano, Verona
• Fellini Foundation, Rimini
• Liberia Bibli Cultural Center, Roma
• Turin National Film Museum, Italy
• Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan
• Institut Français, Nairobi
• Laboral, Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón
• Fundación Luis Seoane, La Coruña
• Filmoteca de Asturias, Gijón
• Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Berlin