Question: When Michael & Hannah begin their affair Michael is 15 years old - in the courtroom scenes, the judge states that Hannah is now 43 years old and also states that the events at Auschwitz took place 20 years prior, which would've made her 23 at the time of Auschwitz and possibly around 23 when she left Michael - meaning that when they had the affair she was only about 7 years his senior. Therefore, when she's 43 in court, that makes him 36 years old when he's at university watching the court proceedings - but surely that's too old for what the film is trying to portray? It seems like he's in his 20's when he's at uni. I don't get it. Surely they couldn't have gotten their timelines so incorrect?
Chosen answer: Where do you figure she was 23 when she left Michael? She had been working at the dispatch office for several years before she meet Michael (as indicated in the scene where her boss promotes her for her long service) -- so this is years after she was at Auschwitz. So she was in her mid-30s when she began the one-year affair with 15-year-old Michael. Then, while at university about 8 years later (when she is in her early 40s), he attends her trial. The timeline is fine.
Question: Why are the prisoners not allowed to talk to each other in Guantanamo bay? Is it to keep them from planning escapes?
Answer: The Guantanamo prisoners are all perceived terrorists, presumably working in coordination. It's essential that they not communicate with each other, so as to prevent them from leaking info about U.S. security.
I think it's also to prevent the prisoners from planning attacks on the guards.
How would they leak information about U.S. security? Most people in the Middle East have no knowledge about U.S. security.
Because people are occasionally released, and whether terrorists or not, may have information others would find valuable - about what goes on in Guantanamo Bay, if nothing else.
Answer: I guess it is more likely to be for the isolation feeling of not talking to anyone. It is like deprivation sleeping, some kind of psychological thing.
Question: Why did all of the officers and high-ranking officials put out their cigarettes when Hitler's plane landed at the airfield?
Answer: Hitler was fanatically anti-tobacco: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-nazis-forgotten-anti-smoking-campaign/373766/.
Answer: They are supposed to stand at attention when he arrives and salute when he walks past them. It is considered bad form to salute the Führer (or any leader) with a cigarette in your mouth or hand.
Answer: It is confusing in the movie because it seems like she went from the ticket taking job to the SS job after refusing the office job promotion, which would require literacy. When actually her SS job was prior to the ticket taker job. Was muddled in the movie.