Film + Discussion with Writer-Director Maria Schrader
Director: Maria Schrader Screenplay: Maria Schrader, Jan Schomburg, Austria, Germany, France, 2016, 106 min. German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French with English subtitles. Digital. Starring: Josef Hader,
Barbara Sukowa, Aenne Schwarz, Matthias Brandt, Charly Hübner
Schrader’s film episodically tells the story of the Austrian Jewish writer Stefan Zweig and his life while in exile from 1936 to 1942. Best known in the US for his novellas The Royal Game, and Letter from an Unknown Woman, that was later adapted into a film directed by Max Ophüls, starring Joan Fontaine.
Stefan Zweig (next to Thomas Mann) was the most-translated German-speaking writer of his time, but having been driven into emigration at the peak of his worldwide fame, Zweig falls into despair at the sight of Europe’s downfall, which he had anticipated early on. Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, Petrópolis are four stations in Stefan Zweig’s exile, which despite offering him safe refuge and overwhelming tropical nature, won’t help him find peace and won’t be able to replace his home.
STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE is the story of a refugee, a tale of losing one’s home, and of the search for a new one. Schrader’s film is a visually stunning historic picture about a great artist and, at the same time, a film about a time in which Europe was coming apart.
STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE is Austria’s Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film - 89th Academy Awards®
© Christine Fenzl
MARIA SCHRADER is a two-time winner of both the German Film award, and the Bavarian Film award. She has worked with directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Doris Dörrie (NOBODY LOVES ME) Hans W. Geissendörfer, Peter Greenaway, Rajko Grilic and Agnieszka Holland (IN DARKNESS). In 1999 she received the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Actress in Max Färberböck’s AIMÉE & Jaguar. She recently thrilled television audiences in the award-winning and internationally renowned television series "Deutschland 83" (2015).
Schrader co-directed THE GIRAFFE with Dani Levy (1998). Her directorial debut LOVE LIFE was shot in Israel in 2007 and was based on Zeruya Shalev’s novel by the same title. STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE is her second feature as a director, for which she received the nomination for Best Director at the 2016 German Film Awards.
Source: Shotwell Media
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