The gripping story of Erika and Klaus Mann, the queer offspring of Thomas Mann, played out against the dramatic setting of Weimar Germany, the rise of fascism and World War Two. Klaus, the author of Mephisto, was a gay writer and pacifist who saw his work banned during his lifetime. Erika was an actress and lesbian whose two marriages included one of convenience to W. H. Auden. Interspersing rare archival footage and interview material with fictional scenes based on Klaus Mann’s writings, Escape to Life is a rich cinematic tribute to an extraordinary pair of characters.

U.K./Germany, 2000.
Director: Andrea Weiss.
84 mins.