ABSTRACT
One of the most important directors of post-unification Germany, Christian Petzold's personal story is entwined with that of Germany and the European continent. It is Petzold's fascination with these political, cultural, existential transit zones that characterizes his profile as a European filmmaker, as this contribution hopes to show. Many of the historical events that Petzold processes are ‘tectonic shifts in German and European history' that constitute moments of individual and collective crisis. Petzold is associated with the so-called Berlin School of cinema, known for its realism. The destruction and reconstruction of Europe in the wake of World War Two brought with it not only ever-changing waves of migration but also severe challenges to the idea of the nation state. To date, Petzold's engagement with the topic of Europe in general and questions of movement across borders and nations in particular, have culminated in Transit.
