In Paris in 1844 Karl Marx meet young Friedrich Engels, the well-to-do son of a factory owner whose studies and research has exposed the poor wages and worse conditions of the new English working class who operate looms, printing presses and other engines of industry that enrich their owners while punishing laborers. The smooth and sophisticated--but equally revolutionary and radical--Engels brings his research, help and resources to provide Marx with the missing piece to the puzzle that composes his new vision of the world.
A spry romp through the seven years leading up to the drafting of the Communist Manifesto, Raoul Peck's biopic of Karl Marx's early years feels like a mix between a prestige BBC drama and a Marx For Dummies primer.
August Diehl excels in the eponymous lead role, as he so often does, complete with an endearing glint in his eyes, as somebody you feel gets a real kick of out a debate, as if waiting, fervently, for somebody to have the courage to disagree with him.
Another of Peck's meaty, weighty and stirring showcases of talk, language, theories and concepts designed to express opposition, mobilise change and make a difference.
It doesn't proselytise as much as it runs with an inherent assumption of the value of the ideas it portrays, taking a relatively dry series of historical events and making them refreshingly accessible.
