To historians, physicist Lise Meitner deserves to be placed on a par with Einstein, Heisenberg and Otto Hahn. In the 1930s on the verge of World War II, she led a small group of scientists who discovered that splitting the atomic nucleus of uranium releases enormous energy. This extraordinary film tells the story of a woman who was far ahead of her time as a scientist and a pioneer of feminism.
Acting
Katherina Lange channels Meitner's steel and sorrow.
Direction
Reenactments that don't insult your intelligence.
Writing
Unpacks the Hahn-Meitner Nobel theft with precision.
Director
Wolf von Truchsess
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Meitner is the only woman with an element named after her who didn't get a Nobel—meitnerium, element 109.
The 'mother of the atomic bomb' title is bitterly ironic: Meitner hated it, insisting she only discovered fission, not weapons.
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