Maria Schrader / Austria, Germany, France 2016 / 106 mins
Farewell to Europe follows the life of the Austrian-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig, one of the most translated German-speaking writers of his era, during his exile from 1936 to 1942. Driven to emigrate at the peak of his worldwide fame, Zweig falls into despair at the prospect of Europe’s downfall – an outcome he had foreseen at an early stage. Zweig’s exile takes him to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, and Petrópolis, but despite offering him safe refuge and an immersion in the riotous natural environment of the tropics, none of his stopping places will help him to find peace or to replace his true home. A visually stunning historical film about a great artist in a time when Europe was on the brink of calamity, this is the story of a refugee – a tale of losing one’s home and searching for a new one.
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