Why? The film suggests that Michael cannot forgive Hanna for being both his lover and a perpetrator. He cannot integrate these two truths. By sending tapes but not letters, he keeps Hanna in the erotic-literary past, a character in a story rather than a person demanding relationship. When Hanna is released after 20 years, Michael visits her. She is a gray, frail old woman. He asks her if she has thought about the past — meaning the Holocaust. She says, “We only ever talked about us.” This line is devastating because it is true. Michael realizes that his method of engagement — reading aloud, avoiding direct confrontation — enabled Hanna’s moral evasion. He gave her literature but not accountability.
