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‘Odessa’ wants to use your empathy against you

JL;DR SUMMARY "Odessa" is a provocative short film by Harald Swinkels that cleverly employs what he calls an "empathy trap" to challenge viewers' assumptions. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustRefugeesSophie SchollJosef MengeleCharismaNazi SympathizersTribeca Film FestivalEmpathy TrapHarald SwinkelsAlois Hudal

Places mentioned

Germany
"Bastian Beyer (left) plays a father fleeing Germany in Odessa."
Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy
"The film opens with a German couple and their young son hiking across the Dolomites; the woman seems anxious, the man much more energetic."
Netherlands
"Swinkels, the founder of the Dutch production company Exosphere, to make the film."
Denmark
"After an election in Denmark resulted in a right-wing shift in politics, he also became interested in exposing how charisma can hide someones darker nature."

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Cairo Item ID 84564
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Retrieved 2026-06-11 05:30:53 UTC
Curated 2026-06-11 08:31:00 UTC