Hans Landa

Standartenführer Hans Landa is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds. He is portrayed by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz. For his performance, Waltz received widespread acclaim and won numerous accolades. Basis of the character Standartenführer (SS Colonel) Hans Landa is an Austrian SS officer assigned to the Sicherheitsdienst. He is nicknamed "the Jew Hunter" for his uncanny ability to locate Jews hiding throughout Occupied France. Egotistical and ambitious, Landa takes a great deal of pride in his fearsome reputation, lauding his nickname "The Jew Hunter" and using it to compare himself to his boss Reinhard Heydrich, whom he describes as disliking the nickname the people of Prague bestowed upon him (“The Hangman”). True to his reputation and nickname, he recognizes Shosanna living an undercover life as a cinema owner four years later, but spares her life again. When the tide of the war turns against the Nazis, he scoffs at it, alluding that his job is to find and capture people and the fact that they are Jews is of no consequence to him. Besides speaking German, he is also fluent in at least French, English, and Italian.