Controversy in Australia about movie on Hitler's last days

A German film about Adolf Hitler's final hours due to be released in Australia is threatening to open old wounds Troy Lum, head of Hopscotch, the Australian distributors of "The Downfall", denies that the 21 April release date, just a few days away from Passover, is provocative. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, "The Downfall" was nominated for a best foreign film Academy Award this year. It is set in Hitler's Berlin bunker during the 12 days before his suicide on 30 April 1945. Following its world premiere in Germany last September the film was attacked by some critics for going soft on the Nazi leader, depicting him as a man with all-too-human frailties. Hopscotch plans to screen the film to Jewish opinion leaders in Melbourne and Sydney before its release. Executive Council of Australian Jewry spokesman Jeremy Jones said the community had a high level of sophistication and tolerance, and was unlikely to be affected by a particular film. "We had the situation last year when Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' was released, when we had responsible church leaders come out one after the other to say it would be wrong to use it as a pretext for anti-Semitism," he said. "But we didn't see people using it as an excuse to justify anti-Jewish prejudice."