About Programs Fellowship News Calendar
Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate shows queer lives in 1920s Berlin and the shift from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism
On June 28, 2023, the documentary Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate is coming to Netflix.
The film tells the story of how a nightclub in 1920s Berlin became a haven for the queer community and explores the freedoms lost amid Hitler’s rise to power.
The director, Benjamin Cantu, explains his thinking behind the plot: “We wanted to show queer lives that took place in Berlin and who experienced the shift from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism. What was important to us was to show how homosexuality was defined at that time from different directions - socially, scientifically, and politically.
“It was completely new at that time to talk so broadly and publicly about homosexuality. The topic was politically instrumentalized by the Nazis as well as the Social Democrats and Communists. The characters this film is about were affected by these dynamics in different ways. Within a few years, many LGBT* people experienced their sexual and emotional freedom and, at the same time, extreme oppression. The film attempts to trace these major movements.”
Benjamin Cantu is a Salzburg Global Fellow and attended the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum, led by the Forum’s Founder and Chair, Klaus Mueller, who served as the film’s dramaturgical and historical consultant. The filmmakers behind Eldorado were also inspired by his documentary, Paragraph 175, in which Klaus interviews survivors of the Nazi persecution of queer people.
“Paragraph 175 was like a driving force for us at that time. When Nils Bökamp (Executive Producer) and I saw it, it was clear to us that this was a topic we wanted to go deeper into. We asked ourselves the question: If all happened here in Germany almost 100 years ago, what do we really know about it?”
Benjamin and Klaus talk about their cooperation, the challenges of remembering queer people often marginalized in history, and how the film is informed by the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum here.
Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate will be available worldwide on Netflix on Wednesday, June 28.
92 min. Germany 2023
Directed by Benjamin Cantu
Recreation Director: Matt Lambert
Executive Producers: Felix Kriegsheim, Nils Bökamp, Benjamin Cantu, Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave
Dramaturgic and Historical consultant: Klaus Mueller
Watch the trailer below:
* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, and we would wish it to be read as inclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.