City of Toys Poster

City of Toys

0.00% | August 26, 2024 | Documentary

City of Toys (2024, 39mins) combines Alan Marcus’ 2001 interview with legendary filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl with an exploration of centuries of antisemitism. As she recalls of her iconic 1935 documentary, Triumph of the Will, on the annual Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally almost seventy years later: “I had no ideals. I only did my duty. It was a commission I carried out.” Beyond its notoriety in 20th century history, Nuremberg was also known as one of the toymaking capitals of the world and until the Nazi era many of its major toymakers were Jewish. Nuremberg still hosts the world’s largest trade toy fair. The film subtly intertwines narratives on Adolf Hitler and Riefenstahl’s representation of the Nazi movement with Nuremberg’s historical bedrock of antisemitism and the role of its Jewish toymakers. As film historian Robert Rosenstone has written of Marcus’ work, “I would call it a kind of poetic history that may in fact deny the possibility of history at all.”

Featured Crew

Alan Marcus
Editor
Alan Marcus
Writer
Alan Marcus
Director
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Cast

Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl
Self (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Self (archive footage)
Viktor Lutze
Viktor Lutze
Self (archive footage)
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher
Self (archive footage)

Images