Manhattan
Project

Ever since the box office duel between Barbie and Oppenheimer, most people are familiar with the inventor of the atomic bomb. But Robert Oppenheimer was not alone: driven by the fear that Nazi Germany could use nuclear fission for military purposes, he headed the Manhattan Project from 1942 onwards.

There, a group of young, exiled, Hungarian, Jewish and, above all, brilliant scientists worked on developing the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever known to mankind in order to finally put an end to war.

Stefano Massini creates a kaleidoscope of human portraits based on the true events surrounding the development of the atomic bomb and the euphoria that accompanied it.

But does the end really justify the means, or are there some inventions we should not implement, even though we can? Must progress be halted in the face of predictable uncontrollability?

With Manhattan Project, directing graduate Simon Friedl and acting students at the Folkwang University of the Arts tackle a historical chapter whose consequences continue to change the world to this day.