Cinematic adaptation of the modern classic by Peter Weiss with a high-profile cast

Peter Weiss (1916–1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist and experimental filmmaker. He is best known for his plays Marat/Sade and Die Ermittlung, as well as the monumental three-volume historical novel Die Ästhetik des Widerstands. Born in Germany in 1916, he began his career as visual artist, studying at the Prague Art Academy in the late 1930s. After the German occupation of the Sudetenland, his family moved to Sweden where Weiss would spend the rest of his life, becoming a Swedish citizen in 1946. His work won many major German literary awards and Peter Brook’s production of Marat/Sade received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1966.