German director Maria Schrader’s new film on Stefan Zweig’s life as an exile in Brazil, “Vor der Morgenröte” (“Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe”), recently premiered in Leipzig and is continuing its run in theaters across Germany. In an interview with Deutsche Welle’s Jochen Kürten, Schrader comments on the correlation between Zweig’s own feelings of displacement as an émigré with that of the current refugee crisis in Europe and the resonance such themes hold for contemporary viewers. The film, featuring Austrian actor Josef Hader in the role of Zweig, further explores Zweig’s persistent refusal to take a political stance as events unfolded in wartime Europe. The topic is one of continued debate and interest among Zweig scholars today, and Schrader’s film offers a welcome reexamination of the internal conflict Zweig so obviously experienced during the final years of his life.

© X Verleih

Another brief trailer from DW, along with clips of interviews with Schrader and Hader can be viewed here.

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