50 Years of SIFF: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
November 3 - 25, 2023
In the film that opened the very first Seattle International Film Festival in 1976—held at the Moore-Egyptian, now just the Moore Theatre—, a woman is harassed by the police and press after a chance encounter with a wanted man until she takes violent action.
When Katharina Blum spends the night with an alleged terrorist, her quiet, ordered life falls into ruins. Suddenly a suspect, Katharina is subject to a vicious smear campaign by the police and a ruthless tabloid journalist, testing the limits of her dignity and her sanity. Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s powerful adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s novel is a stinging commentary on state power, individual freedom, and media manipulation—as relevant today as on the day it opened the first Seattle International Film Festival.
- Original Language Title: Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder
- Director: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
- Principal Cast: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jurgen Prochnow
- Country: Germany
- Year: 1975
- Running Time: 106 min.
- Producer: Margarethe von Trotta
- Screenplay: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
- Cinematographers: Jost Vacnao
- Editors: Peter Przygodda
- Music: Hans Werner Henze
- Filmography: Volker Schlöndorff: The Forest Maker (2021), The Nameless Day (2017), Return to Montauk (2017), Diplomacy (2014), Calm at Sea (2011), Ulzhan (2007), Strike (2006), The Ninth Day (2004), The Legend of Rita (2000), Palmetto (1998), The Ogre (1996), Voyager (1991), The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), Swann in Love (1984), Circle of Deceit (1981), The Candidate (1980), The Tin Drum (1979), Portrait of Valeska Gert (1977), Coup de Grace (1976), The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), A Free Woman (1972), A Degree of Murder (1967), Young Torless (1966) Margaretta von Trotta: Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert (2023), Searching for Ingmar Bergman (2018), Forget About Nick (2017), Hannah Arendt (2012), I Am the Other Woman (2004), Rosenstrasse (2003), The Spoken (1994), Three Sisters (1988), Rosa Luxemburg (1986), Sheer Madness (1983), Mariane & Juliane (1981), Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (1979), The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978), The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
- Language: German