

Werner von Basil, a Austrian intellectual, was captured by the Nazis in 1938. They want to break him to confess smuggling. Without any mental sustenance, the only thing left to keep his mind busy is an old tactics book for chess.
Acting
Curd Jürgens' haunted eyes doing all the dialogue's heavy lifting.
Direction
Oswald traps you in Werner's skull—claustrophobia as aesthetic.

Director
Gerd Oswald
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Stefan Zweig's 'The Royal Game,' written in 1942 during his own exile from the Nazis. Zweig died by suicide the same year.
Jürgens himself fled Nazi Germany in 1936; his performance channels personal knowledge of what these bastards took from people.