TRANSIT ****

Set in present day Paris and Marseille but deliberately constructed as a first cousin to Michael Curtiz'
"Casablanca", "Transit" is the strangest of 'romantic thrillers', a WW2 movie, not just in modern dress, but set in something like an alternative universe and it works...beautifully. Indeed this may be director Christian Petzold's best film so far, superbly filmed, (and totally believable), with a terrific central performance from Franz Rogowski. Of course, the plot isn't lifted directly from "Casablanca"; that might have been too easy but with a little imagination think what might have happened if Rick had left Paris for Marseille with Victor Laszlo in tow where he would meet, not one but two, Ilsa's.

In many respects this is a sci-fi film in plain clothes narrated by a watchful bar owner as if he were an author narrating his novel, (it's based on Anna Seghers' novel which was actually set during World War Two). You might think a suspension of disbelief would be essential but from quite early on in this picture everything that happens seems perfectly natural as if this place and these people were the bedrock of a very ordinary world. A remarkable film in so many ways.