Transit is a disorienting Casablanca for our times by the renowned German director of Barbara and Phoenix, Christian Petzold.
As Time Goes By
by Alexa DalbyTransit
5.0 out of 5.0 stars
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
“An existential thriller about loss, trauma, statelessness and historical amnesia, the brilliant Transit is the latest from the German director Christian Petzold.” – New York Times
“In Christian Petzold’s superbly deft drama, a fugitive steals someone else’s identity with deeply disturbing results… Petzold has updated [Anna Seghers’] story to the present, but like a Brechtian modern-dress adaptation: it’s a 1940s drama with 21st-century cars and streetscapes and police uniforms. This creates a genuinely disorientating, disturbing effect. What was originally a period suspense drama is now a metaphysical mystery about identity – a dream of something that happened long ago or something yet to come. Franz Rogowski plays the fugitive Georg and Paula Beer plays Marie, the beautiful, enigmatic woman who like everyone else is looking for a way out of there.” – The Guardian
Transit is gripping, disconcerting and thought-provoking. Is it about Nazi dictatorship in the 1940s or is it about present-day Brexit consequences to come?
Transit premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and is released on 16 August 2019 in the UK.
