Denial (2016), directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, is a gripping and thought-provoking biographical drama based on Deborah Lipstadt’s memoir History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. The film tells the true story of Lipstadt’s legal battle against Holocaust denier David Irving, who sued her for libel after she called him a Holocaust denier in her book. This powerful film highlights the importance of historical truth, the dangers of denying atrocities, and the personal and professional struggles involved in defending the accuracy of history. With a stellar performance from Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt, Denial is both a legal drama and an emotional journey that examines the complexities of truth and justice.

The film centers around Deborah Lipstadt, a historian and professor of Jewish history, who finds herself at the center of a libel case brought by David Irving (played by Timothy Spall), a British writer and self-proclaimed historian. Irving, notorious for his controversial views on the Holocaust, claims that Lipstadt’s description of him as a Holocaust denier is defamatory and untrue. Rather than being a simple legal case, the trial becomes a battle over the very nature of historical truth. Lipstadt and her legal team, led by the sharp and determined solicitor Richard Rampton (played by Tom Wilkinson), must defend the accuracy of the historical record and prove that Irving’s denial of the Holocaust is not only false but a dangerous distortion of history.