Christian Petzold, 2018 | 102mins
Brilliantly adapted from the popular 1942 novel by Anna Seghers, Transit is an inventive period film from acclaimed director Christian Petzold (Barbara, Phoenix). Georg is a German refugee who escapes to Marseille, a port for migrants fleeing the dangers of an unspecified war. He carries the documents of a famous writer, Weidl: a manuscript, the promise of a travel pass from the Mexican embassy, and letters from the writer's wife, Marie. Discovering that Weidl has committed suicide, Georg decides to assume the dead author's identity. He also grows hesitant about leaving the continent, and, after reading her letters, develops an obsessive desire for the mysterious Marie — herself still stranded in the city. “Transit, evoking shades of Hitchcock and Casablanca, is an unlikely, wrenching love story as much as a sly, unsettling thriller and — like much of director Christian Petzold's oeuvre — a film about ghosts, memory, and historical trauma.” -2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
Presented with English subtitles.