Fluchtweg nach Marseille

A long literary and political travel film that is returning to Rotterdam after more than ten years. As an essay in the form of a road-movie, the film follows the journey of the German-Jewish writer Anna Seghers from Paris to Marseilles, fleeing the Nazis, which she recorded in her wonderful novel Transit. Marseilles was the port that was the hope of many refugees trying to leave the continent before Hitler’s hordes reached the South. In Marseilles, in sight of the harbour (but now seen from the land), the hope of many turned out to be in vain. The film-makers augmented Seghers’ story with their own documentation (in the form of interviews with survivors) and poetry (in travel shots of landscapes). Unsurpassed essay film about the hope and despair of refugees. (GjZ)