30/08/2017 - Christian Petzold's new film, starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, is in post-production

After filming took place in Marseille from 9 May-8 July, Christian Petzold is currently in the process of finishing his next film, Transit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
interview: Franz Rogowski
film profile], which marks his 11th collaboration with Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, this time in co-production with the French company Neon Productions, as well as the channels ZDF and Arte. 

After Phoenix [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Christian Petzold
film profile], which tells the story of a concentration camp survivor confronted with her pre-war identity, the excellent German director is now harking back to the beginning of the conflict, while rediscovering his favourite motif: the superposition of identities, levels of reality and continuums. Transit, written by Petzold himself, is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anna Seghers, published in 1944. The hero, Georg, is a young man who attempts to flee France via Marseille after the Nazi invasion, borrowing the identity of a suicidal author whose papers he possesses. While waiting for the steamer to take off in Marseille, he meets Marie, a young woman who is desperately trying to find her missing husband after being told that she'll be able to find him there. Her husband is none other than the very author that Georg is impersonating. Far from suspecting that she’s looking for a ghost, Georg falls in love with Marie and dreams of taking her with him. As Marseille becomes ever more populated with ghostly refugees waiting to rediscover their human selves, Georg is impatient to live life and to love.

The film's main character has been entrusted to Franz Rogowski, an actor who rose to fame in the remarkable Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Schipper
film profile], and who is absolutely the number-one young German performer of the moment (he also starred in Michael Haneke's new film, Happy End [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Michael Haneke
film profile], at Cannes last May and will soon be seen in the German-Austrian co-production In [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franz Rogowski
interview: Thomas Stuber
film profile] the Aisles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franz Rogowski
interview: Thomas Stuber
film profile] by Thomas Stuber - read the article here - to mention only two of his recent films). Paula Beer plays Marie and is already a well-known face on screen, despite her young age, since being discovered at the age of 15 in Chris Kraus's The Poll Diaries [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Chris Kraus
film profile] (she also played the main female role in Frantz [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile] by François Ozon last year). As for the crew, it’s worth noting that Petzold has reunited with two of his faithful collaborators, namely Hans Fromm and KD Gruber, in cinematography and set design, respectively. 

Transit has received support from the Franco-German Committee (€300,000), the FFA (€340,000), the German Ministry of Culture and Media (€250 000), the Regional Fund from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (€350,000) and Eurimages (€480,000). The film will be distributed from next year by Piffl Medien in Germany, and Les Films du Losange in France. The Match Factory is responsible for international sales.

In collaboration with

 

(Translated from French)