Always in transit
Christian Petzold is a key figure of the Berlin School, the generation that, in the limbo between the 20th and 21st centuries, transformed the German cinematic landscape with a new approach to narrative filmmaking. With a methodical approach based on long-term projects, often in the form of trilogies or complex remakes, and with a network of established collaborations—from screenplays co-written with Harun Farocki to work with performers like Nina Hoss—Petzold has become one of the most singular voices in contemporary European cinema. Like the characters in his films, always in transit, Petzold moves, with elegance and mystery, between borders and categories. His cinema combines the narrative efficiency of classic genres such as thriller or noir with a highly distinctive auteur’s vision, alternating period pieces with sober portraits of contemporary issues, but above all, it makes realism coexist with the more or less explicit irruption of ghosts. Ultimately, isn’t contemporary Germany a promise haunted by the specters of history?
