04 December 2018
“Transit” ---Singapore International Film Festival
Release Year: 2018
Country: Germany, France
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer
Location I watched: Filmgarde Bugis+
Story from the programme booklet:
As German forces close in on modern-day France. Jewish refugee Georg is desperate to evacuate the war-torn continent. His golden ticket comes in the form of transit papers to Mexico, belonging to a recently deceased author. Georg assumes this identity and flees to the port city of Marseille---then finds that the transit visa was not the only thing the writer left behind.
Although the story from the programme booklet is a little bit vague, the storyline is not so complicated. Georg, a Jewish man, tries to evacuate to Mexico using a transit visa by pretending to be a deceased author. However, the invitation from the government of Mexico includes the author’s wife, Marie, too. She had left the author, but wishes to reunite with him, not knowing that her husband had already died. Georg accidentally meets Marie and falls in love with her.
The original novel, “Trandit” written by Anna Seghers was a story set during World War 2. In this film, France is similarly occupied by German forces. This is, however, not a period drama; it is set in the present times. Replacing a past era with the present is common when presenting Shakespeare’s plays. “Transit” took the same approach and became a film beyond a story about the persecutions of Jews by Nazi Germany. As the result, the film succeeded to suggest a universal and contemporary problem, intolerance in the world.
There are people who choose to kill themselves, who are broken up with their family or who are arrested by the forces. Tragedies in the past look like our current happenings, but since they are not directly belonging to our era, there is no uncomfortable feeling to be pushed too much. After watching the film, I was quietly impressed.
As Georg is disguising his identity, the audience feels suspense when his real identity is revealed to the authorities and when he tells the truth to Marie. It is an entertainment element in this film. I was watching in suspense and thinking what on earth he will do at the end.
The end of the film---an illusion he saw and the truth he knew---that bitterness is a fear of war. (10 May 2020)
