Synopsis
Chess Story (Schachnovelle, 2021) is a psychological thriller you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Philipp Stölzl. Vienna, 1938. As German troops roll in, lawyer Josef Bartok is pulled off his escape route by the Gestapo.
They don't beat him. They do something quieter. Bartok is locked in a bare hotel room with nothing — no clock, no books, no voices — while interrogators wait for isolation to pry open his clients' account codes. A stolen chess manual becomes his lifeline and his trap. He replays grandmaster games in his head until the board starts crowding out the real world.
The film adapts Stefan Zweig's final novella, written in exile shortly before his death. Oliver Masucci carries it almost alone, sliding between sharp focus and something close to madness while the camera stays locked on his face. If you want tension built from silence rather than gunfire — a whole war fought inside one skull — this one rewards patience. Stream Chess Story (2021) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0