Alexander Granach - From The Shtetl To The Stage

The remarkable story of an unlikely path from a poverty-stricken, rough-and-tumble childhood to success as a leading stage and film actor in Weimar Germany. This is the account of a daring, curiosity-filled, and perceptive Jewish child from Galicia who was seized with a passion for the theater at the age of 14 and overcame great odds to pursue his dream. After working with directors such as Brecht and Murnau, he was forced to flee Germany for Russia, Switzerland and eventually the USA where he began his American career in Lubitsch's
NINOTCHKA. He died too young, at the age of 52 in 1945, just as the war was drawing to a close and he was looking forward to a reunion with Lotte Lieven, the love of his life. Juliane Köhler and Samuel Finzi read from his letters to Lotte and from his autobiography, 'There Goes An Actor'.