THE FAREWELL (ABSCHIED – BRECHTS LETZTER SOMMER)

One of the earthshaking innovators of modernist drama, Bertholt Brecht fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and lived in several Scandinavian countries before settling in Hollywood in 1941, as many of his illustrious compatriots had already done. He pulled up roots once again after the House Un-American Activities Committee grilled him about his Communist affiliations in 1947. From then until his death in 1956 Brecht seemed to have found a home in East Berlin, where he was lionized and given his own theater, city apartment, country home, and other perquisites unimaginable to 99% of the citizens of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany). Surrounded by his wife, daughter, former mistress, long-time secretary, and new paramour, Brecht spends his final days in August 1956 in an idyllic countryside estate trying to settle the numerous squabbles in the household and making weak attempts to ignore the precarious nature of his own health and that of the increasingly oppressive police-state his “utopia” has become. -- Chale Nafus, Director of Programming, Austin Film Society