Where to and Back

God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore, Santa Fe, and Welcome in Vienna comprise the trilogy of films Where to and Back directed by Axel Corti and written by Georg Stefan Troller. The films are loosely based on Troller’s life as a Viennese Jew who fled Europe as a teenager, emigrated to the United States, and returned to Europe during World War II as an American soldier.

The three full length feature films – which are connected to each other by an advancing chronology and a series of overlapping characters – can be viewed together or separately.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR WHERE TO AND BACK

“Where to and Back is a masterpiece”
– Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

“Remarkable films.”
– Deborah J. Kunk, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“At once intimate and epic and an impeccable period re-creation, ‘Where to and Back’ is a masterpiece shot in gritty black and white and populated by several dozen richly drawn characters.”
– Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

“A masterful, engrossing, novelistic trilogy.”
– Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

“A filmmaker whose restless, intelligent camera eye is always fixed on the fresh and illuminating phrase, gesture, moment.”
– John Powers, L.A. Weekly

“The story of individuals compelled to reshape their identities against the backdrop of World War II.“
– Annette Insdorf, New York Times

“The cast is perfect.”

“What Corti and Troller have done is what artists do: illuminate the life, the lives, within the history – the terrible drama, the bizarre comedy, the wry contradictions.”
– Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

EXTERNAL REVIEWS

JEWISH WEEK Review

FORWARD Review

NPR Fresh Air Review

LINKS

God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore (Where to and Back, Part 1)

Santa Fe (Where to and Back, Part 2)

Welcome in Vienna (Where to and Back, Part 3)

A Woman's Pale Blue Handwriting

The Axel Corti Collection

Biography of Axel Corti

Biography of Georg Stefan Troller

Download a Press Kit (PDF)

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The National Center For Jewish Film
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