Escape to life

Escape to Life is a dramatised documentary about Klaus and Erika Mann, the two brilliant eldest children of Nobel-prize-winner Thomas Mann. This German-American co-production is a balanced mixture of archive footage, film scenes and interviews in which Wieland Speck and Andrea Weiss sketch how the almost inseparable duo kept going as they grew up in the shadow of a world-famous father and a threatening war.For some time, the German director Wieland Speck has been fascinated by Klaus and Andrea, who often claimed they were identical twins. It is certain that they had a special and tight bond that formed the basis for their exceptionally creative and intellectually productive lives. They wrote and acted and were both homosexuals and pacifists. Yet Erika married twice. Klaus, who never progressed further than an engagement, joined the American army to fight against his former fatherland. The paradoxes in their lives put a considerable pressure on their relationship, that finally broke when Klaus became addicted to drugs and Erika shifted her loyalty to her father.The documentary is devoid of a voice-over commentary. All the texts are by Klaus and Erika themselves and are spoken by Barbara Nüsse and Vanessa Redgrave (as Erika) and Ulrich Matthes and Corin Redgrave (as Klaus). The film also provides a beautiful picture of the other members of the famous Mann family and of Germany in the first half of the previous century.