"Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe" or "Vor der Morgenröte" is a co-production between Austria, Germany and France and this is also the reason why this film include several languages, not only German, French and English, but also Portuguese as the majority of the film plays in Brazil. The English title already gives away that this is a movie about writer Stefan Zweig, but this is definitely not a biopic as it is about his final years, you could even say about his final two years if you ignore the very first act taking place in the 1930s. And 1930s and 1940s should already tell you that the Nazis and the War play a huge role in here, even if you never see them and the action takes place far far away from Nazi Germany and World War II. Zweig says on one occasion that he cannot comment on or judge anything that takes place so far far away and also I as an audience member had the impression of being very far away like Zweig all the time.

But first things first: The title character is played by Josef Hader, one of Austria's finest actors for sure, maybe even my personal favorite. German film buffs will find more familiar faces in here, such as Hübner, who shines in his one scene, Sukowa, Brandt and Szymanski. Fittingly with the language, there are also quite a lot Portuguese actors in here. This 105-minute film is definitely a drama, even if here and there you may find a moment or scene that will put a smile on your lips, such as the Mayor of a small town providing a warm welcome and reception for Zweig, which may have been the biggest comedic sequence of the movie. Hader shines as Zweig here for sure and it baffles me to see Sukowa get the only awards recognition here. She was as much over-the-top as she frequently is and lacks convincing subtlety completely once again, something she often does and it's ridiculous how awards bodies still see her approach as something artistic. Schrader, on the other hand, I have never been a big fan of either and I still think she is not a good actress, but here she delivers in the writing and directing department in a way that I definitely think she is among Germany's best female filmmakers these days. Nice to see her get a German Film Award nomination for it.

As a whole, I already wrote in the title that this is a very specific subject, the last years of Zweig, but at the same time it is a very complex one and I believe this film elaborated on this subject convincingly. It also shows how it is still possible to make good films about World War II if you find and follow the right idea. Schrader did here and she also found the perfect lead actor for the part. I would not say Hader saves this from being a bad watch, but he elevated the material considerably. But maybe that's also my personal bias speaking as I like him a lot like I said earlier. The film was maybe at its weakest when it moved away from Brazil to the United States for one sequence, but even this part was not really that bad, just not as interesting as the previous parts. I would disagree with the final part being described as an epilogue. Either leave it out or make it an act on the same level as these acts before. But I did like the scene when he gets a dog for his birthday and looking at his wife at that point on several occasions made obvious how bad things were already then. There is also one very telling quote there, namely when his pal comes to see Zweig and tell him that he moves to Brazil. Before that announcement and before they "physically" meet, we hear Zweig scream to him if he can help him, which shows his hopelessness with the overall situation and how he is lost outside his home in Germany, no matter how kind and caring Brazilians act towards him. So you could see the dog almost as something negative because it was the final thing that made him realize neither the love of people nor the love of animals can really make him happy again and give him a belonging far far away from home. I recommend this film here. Well done for the most part.

I seldom give maximal rating to a movie. So far on, IMDb where I record my impressions about the films that I see, I have given 10 rating to only 34 films, and this list includes classical films and those that have impressed me a lot for decades. My appreciation includes a combination of what I perceive to be the artistic level of the film, its message and its ability to create emotion. Yesterday I was happy to add a movie to this list: the German film VOR DER MORGENRÖTE (which means 'Before tomorrow' or maybe 'Before dawn tomorrow') that received the English title 'Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe'. In fact, I have the impression that it has not been distributed yet in the US or England, and perhaps that explains the lack of echoes so far in relation to this film, exceptional in my opinion.

If you search the Internet 'Stefan and Lotte Zweig' you arrive pretty quickly at the photo where the two of them lie dead, hand in hand, in their bed, in February 1942, in Petropolis, Brazil, after having committed suicide. This photo appears reconstituted for a second or two in the epilogue of the film. The prologue and the four episodes follow the path that Stefan Zweig, one of the great writers of Germany and the world, traveled between 1936 and 1942, and each of the episodes describes part of the premises of the fatal act. Having been raised and having lived in a world of words and ideas, of respect for people and culture, of the dialogue as the only acceptable solution to conflicts resolution, Stefan Zweig saw his world destroyed by the Nazi brutality and ignorance. His attempt to resist by words, using the weapons of the pacifist intellectual, was doomed to failure. We can imagine him in that winter between 1941 and 1942, desperate about the progress and temporary victories of the forces of darkness, reproaching to himself his lack of courage and ambiguous personal positions in the face of evil, the fact that he was unable or unwilling to help those in deadly danger, sharing the complex of the survivors, and lacking the resilience and power to continue to live to see the victory of Good.

The director of the film is Maria Schrader whom I met as actor in one of the main roles, the Stasi spy manipulator in the excellent 'Deutschland 83' series. She manages to build on screen the personality and especially the human dimension of Stefan Zweig, with his dilemmas and weaknesses, helped by Tomas Lemarquis's master acting. I found excellent the description of Zweig's attitude towards his two countries: Germany, in whose language and culture he never ceased to live, and which he could not condemn even when the Nazis became rulers, and Brazil, which sheltered him and which he idealized and flattered in one of its last books, perhaps too much, maybe a little because of opportunism or maybe only as recognition for saving his life.

Cinematography is not based on words alone. The prologue and the epilogue are two outstanding pieces of cinema. In the prologue we see Zweig taking part in a banquet given in his honor in Brazil in 1936, in which he speaks in praise of Brazil as a country of the future and exults its multiculturalism and the equality of all citizens of all colors. But all participants at the reception, and even servants, without exception, are white! The epilogue is a masterpiece, shot in a single frame, with multiple planes made with a mirror. After policemen, neighbors, friends understand the tragedy, investigate, say goodbye, someone says a Jewish prayer. Then in the deserted room, enters the maid, a black woman, and she says Pater Nostrum. And she leaves, obscuring the frame. Cut.

What a masterpiece in quiet tones, insinuation and blank spaces. And the viewer needs to fill and interpret them. What Maria Schrader did not do is a biopic by numbers, but - by showing sketches of a few days of Austrian-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig's life in exile in Brazil during WWII - what happened without a doubt to many other artists, intellectals and others who had fled the German nazi regime. Josef Hader's acting is brilliant, how he hurries from government reception to PEN congress to press conference - always keeping up appearances but beyond his friendly and modest behaviour and the thankfulness to his hosts lies despair about the state of things in europe, his uprooting and depression. Only on occasion - when he speaks with his ex-wife (absolutely wonderful: Barbara Sukowa) and a befriended journalist (likewise: Matthias Brandt) who - coincindentially - moved into the neighbourhood of his last residence, Petropolis - he finally reveals it: 'How can anyone stand this at all?'. Or, in another scene you can see it in his touched-wistful gaze when an untalented brass band gives a poor performance of 'Auf der schönen blauen Donau" ('On the blue Danube') during an improvised (and very funny) reception in a province town in the jungle. The epilogue, shortly after his and his current wive's suicide, again shows the mastery of Maria Schrader's direction: dry police procedural, shocked neighbours and officials, mourning or praying friends, Matthias Brandt reading the suicide note - a panopticon in the wardrobe mirror that occasionally shows the two dead bodies. You only sit there and you are amazed and deeply moved. What a fantastic film!