With Transit, director Christian Petzold creates a Second World War adventure that is not a sentimental costume drama and a contemporary political parable that is not a didactic sermon – and produces a highly entertaining film into the bargain. His trick is marvellously simple: He takes the Casablanca-like story from a wartime novel by the German writer Anna Seghers and places it in a more-or-less current setting using contemporary dress.
German refugee Georg (Franz Rogowski) escapes occupied Paris and flees to Marseilles ahead of advancing troops. There he adopts a dead man’s identity in a daring scheme to get the necessary transit passes for a ship to Mexico. While he waits, he meets other desperate refugees including the mysterious Marie (Paula Beer), separated from the husband who would help her escape.
The film makes the link between wartime fascism and current anti-refugee sentiment quietly explicit and highly effective.
Rating: 4 out of 4
Courtesy: Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail
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