Christian Petzold‘s adaptation of Anna Segher‘s escape and exile novel risks a lot and it pays off in spades. The novel, set in 1942, is about German refugees who are waiting for their emigration papers in Marseille, especially the important transit papers that would enable them to go to ports in countries where they have no entry papers. The film is set in present-day France and the characters are not wearing any era-appropriate clothes. This could‘ve easily gone wrong and come off like a silly punch line. But Segher‘s template attains a directness and an urgency because of it without the film ever pretending to be anything but a cinematic interpretation of the book.

The places remain as real as the story, but there are narrative switches which are noticeable. Petzold keeps interweaving anachronisms in the story of the odyssee of German emigrant Georg, terrifically played by Franz Rogowski. The voice-over that is perceived as the voice of the novel (and the past) suddenly talks about a zombie film set in a shopping mall. Georg transports letters written in Sütterlin handwriting and appears to be 70 years old. The eras come in contact with the narrative but the focus is directed towards what is constant at the same time. TRANSIT is a sun-drenched film. In this light we see a desperate Walter Benjamin on his way to Portugal via the Pyrenees and take his own life on the Spanish side of Pour Bou. The difficult escape route is mentioned numerous times. “It‘s madness“ says Georg to someone who wants to try it.

Georg has just one shot to travel under a false identity. He finds two visas to Mexico in letters he was meant to deliver to author Weidel who is already dead when Georg enters his hotel room. Georg gets involves with Weidel‘s widow Marie (Paula Beer) of all people who left her husband and wants to leave with a doctor to Mexico. She is waiting for the visa that Georg has in his pocket. That‘s the heart of the story, but the details are more important: the fear of the behavior of the normal French people who are collaborating with the occupying forces. The omnipresence of the local police who are “cleansing“ for the Germans and immediately arrest any “illegal.“ The fleeting encounters with other people in similar situations, the suicides of the distraught. The deceptions that make survival even possible.

TRANSIT manages the feat of showing the German exile experience while having current associations resonate as well.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy