Transit. 2018. USA. Directed by Christian Petzold. Screenplay by Petzold, based on the book by Anna Seghers. With Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese. DCP. In German, French; English subtitles. 102 min.
At the height of a European “migrant crisis,” Christian Petzold filmed an adaptation of Anna Seghers’s 1944 novel Transit, about a refugee who tries to escape a fascist police state by impersonating a dead writer. In a chilling, prescient move, Petzold masterfully blends past and present by filling the streets of Marseille with police, armed state forces, and political refugees, dressed in 21st-century attire, desperately trying to escape authoritarian repression.