Transit

While German forces loom outside of Paris, Georg manages to escape to Marseilles. In his possession are documents belonging to a dead author named Weidel, including a manuscript and visa to Mexico. Given that Georg needs a visa to stay in Marseilles, he adopts the dead man’s identity. While waiting for a boat, he meets a mysterious woman desperate to find her husband—the very man he impersonates. Esteemed German director Christian Petzold (Barbara) adapts Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel, while taking a brazen decision to eschew historical restorations of sets and costumes, and instead, position his actors in contemporary Marseilles, thereby fusing past and present in a fascinating and provocative effect.