Austerlitz

How is a forgotten past reflected in the subconscious? That’s something that the main character discovers in Austerlitz, the 2001 novel by W. G. Sebald. In the novel, the narrator becomes fascinated with the art historian and amateur photographer Jacques Austerlitz, who in turn has a fascination with 19th-century monumental architecture. Director Stan Neumann adds another layer to it, as a filmmaker who’s intrigued by the book. He mixes fact with fiction: Austerlitz is played by French actor Denis Lavant, while Neumann acts as the book’s narrator in a voice-over, to which he also adds his own observations. Gradually Austerlitz’s history surfaces: in 1939, he was brought from Prague to England as a little boy and started a new life in Wales and later in London – without any knowledge of his roots. Only when he discovers his backstory do things fall into place. In the person of Austerlitz, the narrator of the book recognizes himself; he too was brought to safety as a child from Prague. The kinship that the filmmaker feels stems from the fact that his father was imprisoned in Theresienstadt, just like Austerlitz’s mother. More than anything, Austerlitz is about the intimate relationship between the book and the filmmaker, and between people who don’t know each other but have a strong bond all the same. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)