Néron: Plaidoyer pour un monstre (2016)

Nero is synonymous with the mad tyrant. Ancient historians Mischa Meier and Claudia Tiersch and church historian Christoph Markschies deliver arguments towards the thesis that such a Nero never existed: This is a new interpretation of Nero's rule. Another novelty is visual: The actors act in the middle of ancient Rome - with the help of computerized reconstructions. This documentary depicts Nero as a victim of ancient chroniclers that were part of the aristocracy: They took revenge on the emperor for his deprivation of power of the Roman elite. The documentary chronicles Nero's life. He was the son of his power-thirsty mother Agrippina, more and more coming into conflict with her. The matricide presents itself as the last resort of dynastic politics. This crime is analyzed in the light of Nero's time, and Nero's personal skills and deficits are discussed at length. He emerges as a ruler who never, even during his own lifetime, fulfilled the elites' expectations of "good emperor-ship" - but mainly for other reasons then hitherto known: They were confused by his artistic ambitions and they despised his refusal to attend gladiatorial matches or engage in military expansion. Nero governed a society with different norms and laws in which cruelty was a convention and the murder of family members was a legitimate means of politics.