Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt

[A] solid intellectual biography ...

Ushpiz is careful to include naysayers along with supporters of Arendt, but the core of her contention is still a flashpoint for controversy.

"Vita Activa" closely examines Arendt's "active life" with the goal of putting us inside her formative experiences, the better to reveal who she was and where her attitudes came from.

Arendt's focus on the demonization of refugees as a precursor to genocide proved prescient, and the film makes the case that exile allows some thinkers to see the bigger picture, even as they're forced to sacrifice their own notion of home.