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THE LAST CHANCE

DIE LETZTE CHANCE

By Leopold LINDTBERG

Drama - Completed 1945

Festival de Cannes 2016

Cannes Classics

- Year of production
- 1945
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- SWITZERLAND
- Languages
- ENGLISH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, YIDDISH
- Duration
- 113 mn
- Director(s)
- Leopold LINDTBERG
- Writer(s)
- Richard SCHWEIZER, Elizabeth MONTAGU
- Cast
- Ewart G. MORRISON, John HOY, Ray REAGAN, Luisa ROSSI, Giuseppe GALEATI, Romano CALÒ
- ISAN
- 0000-0000-4912-0000-0-0000-0000-3
- EIDR
- 10.5240/B682-7FC7-4E29-DC1D-3876-S
- Synopsis
- Northern Italy, September 1943. Two allied prisoners of war, an Englishman and an American, escape when the train transporting them to Germany is bombed. Taken in by a village priest who smuggles into Switzerland everyone trying to escape the Germans, the two prisoners become smugglers in turn, leading a group of Jewish refugees of all ages and ten different nationalities. With the Nazis in pursuit, they try to reach Switzerland over the mountains… One year after Marie-Louise, Leopold Lindtberg made another deeply humanist film on the theme of war refugees in Switzerland. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Festival de Cannes in 1946, Die letzte Chance was a success around the world, and established the importance of Lindtberg internationally. “In its dignity, this film transcends mere realistic testimony to become an allegory: that of seeking refuge, a homeland. If only for that, Die letzte Chance deserves its place as a classic among prominent postwar films” (Hervé Dumont, Histoire du cinéma suisse, 1987).