Die Verlorene Ehre der Katarina Blum

Die Verlorene Ehre der Katarina Blum ★★★★★
In English, the Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a well-done film based on a book by the same name by Heinrich Böll, though written in the ’70s, has a contemporary feel to it. It was easy to sense that Böll was protesting the yellow journalism of The Bild tabloid in reporting the events of the Baader-Meinhof gang. Unfortunately, this film has had little impact in the USA, even though it has received international acclaim. The story is of a young lady that is inadvertently acquainted with somebody identified as a terrorist, and so hounded by the police and also the press in a smear campaign that served judgment on this young woman who had done nothing wrong, save to have had an acquaintance to somebody she met in normal social circles. The relevance to contemporary society becomes increasingly compelling, with, for instance, the rulings of homeland security.  I have seen such activity even in my beloved (?) hospital, where people are presumed guilty never to be granted innocence simply because of the system. This is an honest statement against the press and federal oppression that should be more familiar to American audiences.