On Wednesday, Trinity University’s French and German departments screened “Chess Story,” the first of three films in the inaugural Modern Languages & Literatures Film Festival.
The professors behind the festival — Leonie Ettinger, professor of German; Elinore Darzi, visiting assistant professor of French and Benjamin Schluter, part-time lecturer with the German department — say that every film in the series had been adapted from a different form of media: “Chess Story” as a novella by Austrian author Stefan Zweig, “Incendies” as a play by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad and “Undine” as a German novella, and later an opera.
“A through line is having these movies in the present, from different historical times and different literary periods and different countries as well,” Ettinger said.
“Chess Story” follows a lawyer who finds comfort in playing chess when he is imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II. Schluter said the film explores the relationship between politics and theory, and how that plays into the game of chess.
“The ‘Chess Story’ novella was like ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ before ‘The Queen’s Gambit,’” Schluter said.
“Incendies,” the second film in the festival lineu...