Vienna, 1938: Austria is occupied by the Nazis. To withstand the Gestapo’s psychological torture, an imprisoned lawyer immerses himself the world of chess.

A frenzied descent into a mind gripped by manic fixations, Philipp Stölzl’s dizzying adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s classic novella unearths the mental wreckage left by Nazi persecution. Behind every move of a thrilling chess match between unlikely opponents is a lifetime of psychological turmoil.