Les jeux d’Hitler — Berlin 1936

While watching images captured just eight decades ago at the 1936 Olympic Games, one would almost forget that they were shot in the throes of Nazi Germany. The triumph of Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in Berlin, still seems to enshrine the victory of sport and the Olympic ideal, as if the young black American athlete had been our champion who was able to vanquish, in a sportive way, the Nazi monster. Using only archival documents and unreleased amateur films, Jérôme Prieur’s film chronicles the massive propaganda operation launched by Hitler in 1933. After witnessing the preparation and orchestration of a performance that dealt more with politics than sport, we come to realize that the 1936 Olympic Games were a game of appearances.