Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe

Austrian-born Stefan Zweig was an immensely important literary figure in the 1920s and ‘30s, second among German writers only to Thomas Mann. Maria Schrader's bio-pic, however, is less about Zweig's books than it is about his exile as a Jew from his native land during the Nazi era. The film is constructed as a series of vignettes, not all chronologically arranged but together encompassing the period from the mid-‘30s to Zweig's death in 1942. A few are fairly cinematic—such as an international conference, and an accident-filled reception in a small Brazilian village—but even they are tableaux-like and largely conversational, including a long discussion between the writer and his first wife (played by Barbara Sukowa) in frigid New York City, where they debate the extent to which he should use his influence to secure visas for acquaintances still trapped in Europe. Schrader stages everything with consummate craftsmanship and uses various locations to optimal effect, while Josef Hader gives a precise, restrained performance as Zweig, a man dedicated to gentlemanly principles and culture that are passing away in the throes of bigotry and war. A thoughtful, poignant portrait of Zweig's final years that serves as a fitting tribute to his sensitivity and refinement, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)