The Director by Daniel Kehlmann Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) | A Fascinating Story About Art, War, and the Cost of Compromise
Sometimes you pick up a book because the subject fascinates you. Other times, you pick up a book because the writing fascinates you.
For me, The Director was definitely the second one. 🎬
I'll admit it: I wasn't especially invested in reading about Austrian film director G. W. Pabst. Years ago, I went through a phase where I became obsessed with classic cinema, so I knew who Pabst was and had certainly heard of Pandora's Box, even if I'd never actually watched it. That little bit of familiarity was enough to pique my curiosity, but not enough to make me think this would become one of my favorite historical novels.
And yet...Daniel Kehlmann completely pulled me in.
📚 Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 4/5
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
War violence
Holocaust and concentration camps
Antisemitism
Racism against Sinti and Roma people
Nazi propaganda
Child abuse
Animal death
Emotional abuse
Mental illness
Addiction
Self-harm
Suicide
Graphic violence
Death
Sexual content
Strong language
📖 What Is The Director About?
The Director is a work of historical fiction centered on legendary Austrian filmmaker G. W. Pabst, one of the pioneers of silent cinema.
After failing to establish himself in Hollywood, Pabst makes what he believes will be a brief trip back to Austria to visit his elderly mother. Unfortunately, his timing couldn't be worse. Germany invades Poland, World War II begins, and the borders close, trapping him inside Nazi-controlled territory.
Unable to leave, Pabst is forced into an impossible position: either refuse to work and risk everything—or continue directing films for Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry while convincing himself he's simply trying to survive.
Meanwhile, decades later, an elderly former assistant named Franz Wilzek is haunted by memories of one final unfinished mystery: the disappearance of Pabst's legendary lost film, The Molander Case.
🎥 Daniel Kehlmann's Writing Is Outstanding
This isn't an action-packed novel.
It's thoughtful.
Patient.
Sometimes even quiet.
But it never felt dull.
Kehlmann writes with incredible confidence. The dialogue feels authentic, the historical setting is immersive, and even relatively ordinary conversations carry a surprising amount of tension.
I also appreciated that this never reads like a dry biography. Instead, it feels like we're watching history unfold from inside Pabst's own increasingly conflicted mind.
There's a constant question hanging over every chapter:
🤔 At what point does survival become complicity?
The novel never gives an easy answer.
🎬 A Surprisingly Human Portrait of G. W. Pabst
One of my favorite aspects of the novel is that Pabst is neither portrayed as a hero nor a monster.
He's deeply flawed.
He repeatedly convinces himself that he has no choice.
Sometimes that's true.
Sometimes...it's probably not.
Watching him rationalize one compromise after another was honestly fascinating. Every decision seems understandable in isolation, but when viewed together they gradually become devastating.
The novel is much more interested in self-deception than outright evil, and I thought that made Pabst a far more compelling character than if he'd simply been written as a villain.
🎞️ FULL Plot Summary (Spoilers Ahead!) ⚠️
🚨 MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW! Skip to the final thoughts if you haven't read the book.
📺 An Old Director and a Forgotten Mystery
The novel opens decades after World War II.
An elderly former assistant director, Franz Wilzek, appears on a television talk show where he's unexpectedly questioned about The Molander Case, a supposedly lost film directed by Pabst during the final days of the war.
Wilzek angrily insists the film never existed.
His emotional reaction immediately raises suspicion that something far more complicated happened.
🌴 Hollywood Doesn't Want Pabst
Years earlier, Pabst is living in Hollywood after leaving Europe.
Unfortunately, Hollywood has little interest in his artistic ambitions.
Studio executives reject his ideas and push him toward commercial projects he dislikes. Even former collaborators like Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks can't rescue his career.
Feeling defeated, he decides to make what he believes will be a quick trip back to Austria to visit his elderly mother before returning to America.
History has other plans.
🚂 Trapped Inside Nazi Germany
Once Pabst arrives home, Germany invades Poland.
The borders close.
He's trapped.
To make matters worse, the caretaker of his estate has become an enthusiastic Nazi official who delights in making life miserable for Pabst's family.
After suffering a serious fall that leaves him badly injured, Pabst becomes increasingly dependent on others while his wife, Trude, struggles to hold the family together.
Their son Jakob, meanwhile, is swept into Nazi youth culture and gradually begins embracing its ideology, horrifying his parents.
🎥 Working for Goebbels
Eventually, Pabst is summoned to meet Joseph Goebbels, who offers him the opportunity to return to filmmaking—provided he demonstrates loyalty to the regime.
Pabst agrees.
Over the following years he directs several films under Nazi supervision while constantly telling himself he's simply trying to survive.
One of the novel's most disturbing scenes occurs while working with Leni Riefenstahl on Lowlands, where the film's extras are prisoners from the Maxglan concentration camp. Pabst is horrified by what he sees, yet continues working anyway.
It perfectly captures the novel's central theme: the terrifying ease with which people convince themselves they have no alternative.
🎼 The Making of The Molander Case
As the war nears its end, Pabst finally begins making the film he truly cares about.
He transforms a mediocre propaganda novel into something dark, artistic, and uniquely his own.
When the production suddenly loses its military extras, Pabst makes one final terrible compromise.
Jewish concentration camp prisoners are brought in to serve as audience members during the climactic concert scene.
Among them, Wilzek recognizes his own childhood doctor.
It's one of the most haunting moments in the novel and a reminder that every "artistic compromise" has real human consequences.
🚆 The Lost Film
As Prague erupts in rebellion, Pabst and Wilzek flee with the completed film reels packed inside an army rucksack.
On the crowded train to Vienna, Pabst accidentally swaps identical bags with a farrier.
Instead of his completed masterpiece...
...he arrives carrying nothing but horseshoes. 🐴
The finished film appears to have vanished forever.
Pabst never recovers emotionally from the loss.
His later career becomes a shadow of what it once was, while Trude increasingly takes over the practical work behind his films.
💔 The Twist Ending
Years after Pabst dies, the novel circles back to elderly Franz Wilzek.
While sorting through old belongings in his room, he discovers the original rucksack.
Inside are all seven reels of The Molander Case.
The truth is quietly devastating.
About a week after the mistaken bag exchange, the farrier actually found Wilzek and returned the film.
Wilzek simply...
...never told Pabst.
For decades, Pabst believed his masterpiece had been lost forever when, in reality, it had been sitting unnoticed in Wilzek's possession.
As Wilzek's memory deteriorates, he barely remembers why he kept the secret.
The only image that still remains vivid is the face of his family doctor standing among the concentration camp prisoners during the film shoot.
It's an incredibly poignant ending.
The film isn't really "lost" because of fate.
It's lost because history, guilt, memory, and silence all conspired to bury it.
I thought that explanation was beautifully poetic and oddly fitting. By the time I reached the final page, I couldn't imagine a better fate for The Molander Case.
💭 Final Thoughts
Going in, I wasn't particularly excited about reading a fictionalized biography of G. W. Pabst.
Coming out, I was impressed by just how compelling Daniel Kehlmann made both the man and the moral questions surrounding him.
This isn't really a novel about filmmaking.
It's about compromise.
About the stories we tell ourselves.
About how history remembers people—and how people remember themselves.
And that ending? Absolutely perfect. 🎬
📚 I Recommend The Director If You Enjoy:
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
Have you read The Director? Do you think Pabst was simply trying to survive, or did he cross a moral line long before the novel's devastating ending? Let me know in the comments! 🎥📚
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