TRANSIT
2018 - 101 MINUTES - GERMANY/ FRANCE - IN GERMAN AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH / FRENCH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY CHRISTIAN PETZOLD
FEATURING: FRANZ ROGOWSKI, PAULA BEER, LILIEN BATMAN, ROBALD KUKULIES, GODEHARD GIESE
German troops are fast approaching Paris. Georg, a German refugee, escapes to Marseille in the nick of time. In his luggage, he carries the documents of an author, Weidel, who has taken his own life in fear of his persecutors. Those documents include a manuscript, letters and visa assurance from the Mexican embassy.
In Marseille, only those who can prove they will leave, may remain. Visas for possible host countries, transit visas, and those scarce tickets for passage by ship are much needed. Georg has memorized Weidel's papers and assumes his identity. He delves into the quasi-existence of flight: refugee chatter in the corridors of a small hotel, the consulates, cafés and bars that line the harbor... He befriends Driss, the son of his comrade Heinz, who died on the run. Why move on at all? Are new beginnings possible elsewhere anyway?
Everything changes when Georg falls in love with the mysterious Marie. Is it devotion or calculation that has led her to share her life with a doctor, Richard, before journeying on in search of her husband? He's said to have surfaced in Marseille in possession of a Mexican visa for him and his wife.
“With the wonderful Transit, Christian Petzold loosens his grip”
- National Post
TRANSIT an interview with Christian Petzold - "It’s a war story. A doomed love story. A ghost story. A parable. It’s dark, thrilling and strangely funny, in an absurdist, Kafka-esque way." - Globe Arts
★ ★ ★ ★ TRANSIT "Christian Petzold's moody drama about exile is unsettling and powerful" - NOW
★ ★ ★ ★ “a unique, off-kilter cinematic experience, cementing Petzold’s reputation as one of Germany’s most essential filmmakers.” - NOW
“[Petzold’s] visual style and the emotions he unleashes — hope, desire, apprehension — make the film an unexpectedly compelling journey.” - Toronto Star
“one of the sharpest Holocaust allegories of modern cinema.” - Canadian Jewish News
“Modern day Fascism Hits “Casablanca”" - Windsor Square
“The filmmaking is taut and skillful and Petzold largely succeeds with his double-track gambit: As a nightmarish but somehow comfortingly familiar thriller about fear, persecution, and mistaken identity. It also disturbs as a prophecy of the consequences of Europe's resurgent neo-fascist politics and anti-immigrant politics.” - Original CIN