The Empty Mirror

Running time: 119 mins

Many children prefer to leave the closet light on to keep the monsters away at night. Some end up in their parents' bed. Those monsters, however, are but imaginary. But the monster who is the main focus of Barry Hershey's feature debut The Empty Mirror is far too real. A bold re-imaging of the man who committed the most heinous crimes in history, we find Adolf Hitler (Norman Rodway) if he had survived WWII, left to contemplate his deeds. If Hitler lived to write his memoirs, how would he justify his actions? Hershey challenges us to examine the myth vs. the reality of Adolf Hitler and ourselves. Set in the attic of what could be Hitler's mind, a man sorts out old photos, film clips and state documents. The man is simply dictating his life story to a typist. His self-reflecting journey reveals the methods used to seduce a nation into total submission and blind obedience. After close examination and conversations with characters such as Joseph Goebbels (critically acclaimed actor Joel Grey) and Sigmund Freud (Peter Michael Goetz), can Hitler see the true horror of his deeds? And does blame lie squarely on Hitler's back? With a powerful, maverick vision and many haunting images, The Empty Mirror leaves that question for the viewer to answer. --Sandra Tuttle