Human Remains

Human Remains illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five infamous dictators. The film unveils the personal lives of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse Tung. We learn the private and mundane details of their everyday lives - their favourite foods, films, habits and sexual preferences. There is no mention of their public lives or of their place in history. Their personalities and psychological makeup are revealed through the details they share. The entire film is factual combining direct quotes and facts sifted from biographies. The use of foreign voice-over and British translators give the film a BBC type documentary style and adds to the verisimilitude of the film. A dark poetry pervades the entire film. Irony and even occasional humour are sprinkled throughout. The intentional omission of the horrors for which these men were responsible hovers over the film. Human Remains addresses this horror from a completely different and more obtuse angle, forcing the viewer to confront the nature of evil.