Transit
There are those who treat melodrama as a dirty word, but no working filmmaker gives it a crisper reputation than German auteur Christian Petzold, whose anti-historical experiment Transit registers as his most conceptually daring lm to date. A refugee portrait that piles contrivance upon contrivance to somehow land at a place of piercing emotional acuity, this adaptation of Anna Seghers' 1942 novel takes a brazen risk right off the bat by stripping its story – about a German concentration camp survivor seeking passage to North America in Nazi-occupied France – of any external period trappings, relocating it to present day. (Guy Lodge, Variety)
Director's Biography
Christian Petzold
Born in 1960, he studied German and theatre at Freie Universität Berlin and film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). Whilst there he worked as an assistant director to Harun Farocki and Hartmut Bitomsky. In 1995 he directed his first feature film. “The State I Am In” (2000) won the German Film Award in Gold. In 2012 he won the Silver Bear for Best Director with “Barbara” at the Berlinale.
Film Selection: Transit (2018) — Phoenix (2014) — Barbara (2012) — Jerichow (2008) — Yella (2007) — Gespenster (Ghosts, 2005) — Die innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In, 2001) — Pilotinnen (1995)
Born in 1960, he studied German and theatre at Freie Universität Berlin and film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). Whilst there he worked as an assistant director to Harun Farocki and Hartmut Bitomsky. In 1995 he directed his first feature film. “The State I Am In” (2000) won the German Film Award in Gold. In 2012 he won the Silver Bear for Best Director with “Barbara” at the Berlinale.
Film Selection: Transit (2018) — Phoenix (2014) — Barbara (2012) — Jerichow (2008) — Yella (2007) — Gespenster (Ghosts, 2005) — Die innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In, 2001) — Pilotinnen (1995)
European Panorama Fiction 2018
Christian Petzold
Germany / France 2018
color
101 minutes
German / French OV with German subtitles
Editing Bettina Böhler
Sound/Sounddesign Andreas Mücke-Niesytka
Music Stefan Will
With Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman
Producer(s) Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, Antonin Declet
Production
Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, Neon Productions
Austrian Premiere
Rechte Österreich / Austrian Rights
Stadtkino
Weltpremiere / World Premiere
Weltpremiere / World Premiere
Berlinale 2018
Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere