Transit, dir. Christian Petzold, Germany 2018, 102 min., French and German with English subtitles
German auteur Christian Petzold’s conceptually ambitious Transit depicts the moral failings of Europe past and present.
As a modern-day Paris is invaded by foreign troops, Transit follows Georg, who manages assume the identity of a recently deceased German writer and flee to Marseille. After he encounters the writer’s enigmatic wife Marie – who is unaware of her husband’s fate – the pair forge a plan to escape the continent before history is repeated.
Inventively conflating contemporary and anachronistic details, Transit is a foreboding portrayal of a modern Europe under the threat of fascism.
