Selected Screenings

New York Jewish Film Festival (2008)
Portland Jewish Film Festival (2008)
San Francisco International Film Festival (1987)
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (1987)
Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival (1987)
Film Forum, New York (July 1988)
Austrian Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York (1993)
Riverside Theater London (2005)

Listen: NPR's Fresh Air Feature on the Axel Corti's Where to and Back Trilogy

Synopsis

Vienna 1938. After Kristallnacht and the murder of his father, Ferry Tobler (Johannes Silberschneider) a young Viennese Jew flees from the Nazis and profiteers of Vienna. He scrambles for various exit visas and entry permits, and finally arrives in Prague, where he meets an anti-Nazi German soldier (Armin Mueller-Stahl) who has escaped from Dachau and a sympathetic Czech relief worker. Together with other Jewish refugees, the three make their way to Paris and eventually to Marseille, hoping to sail to a safe port.

Critical Acclaim

“An enlightened ‘road’ movie.”
– Vincent Canby, New York Times

“An unusually sensitive and well-crafted work which throws the viewer into the middle of the turmoil experienced by Jews trying to evade Hitler’s inexorable advance.”
– Jon Hofferman, Los Angeles Reader

“Corti purposefully avoids pumping up the narrative, and his straight-forward and understated style allows the multi-dimensional characters, as well as the historical details and ironies of their plights, to emerge gradually.”
– Jon Hofferman, Los Angeles Reader

“A suspense-ridden adventure.”
– Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

“Greog Stefan Troller’s literate script doesn’t eschew the ideological conflicts and dollops of philosophy which are invariably a part of the Jewish experience, and Corti fruitfully exploits the relationship between these cerebral considerations and the more pressing existential concerns of the protagonists.” – Jon Hofferman, Los Angeles Reader

“With unerring brilliance, Corti finds and exposes small moments of meaning. His canvas is huge, but his brush stoke is delicate.”
– Deborah J. Kunk, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Credits

Director: Axel Corti
Scriptwriter: Georg Stefan Troller
Cinematographer: Wolfgang Treu
Editors Klaus Riemer: Werner Swossil, Lutz Kleinselbeck

Ferry: Johannes Silberschneider
Alena: Barbara Petritsch
Gandhi: Armin Mueller-Stahl
Mehlig: Fritz Muliar
Fein: Eric Schildkraut
Kron: Georg Corten
Gross: Georg Marischka
Kornfeld: Kurt Mejstrik
Dolba: Bernd Jesche

Home Use DVD: $29.95 Does not include Classroom or Library Use Rights or Public Performance Rights. More Information	Classroom/Library Use DVD: $195 Does not include Public Performance Rights. More Information
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Links

Santa Fe (Where to and Back, Part 2)

Welcome in Vienna (Where to and Back, Part 3)

A Woman's Pale Blue Handwriting

Biography of Axel Corti

Biography of Georg Stefan Troller

Download a Press Kit (PDF)

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God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore
An uns glaubt Gott nicht mehr

Part 1 Where To and Back
Austria, 1982, 110 minutes, b&w,
German with English subtitles

Directed by Axel Corti
Written by Georg Stefan Troller

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Public Exhibition formats: Beta, DVD