Jeremy Irons plays Raimundo, a bespectacled teacher in Bern, who saves a young woman from taking her own life: she runs away, leaving behind her coat, in which there is a fascinating book by a PortuguesedoctorandarailtickettoLisbon.Entrancedbythe mystery, he jumps aboard the train and tracks down the author’s surviving relatives and associates: a stately range of performances from Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Ganz and Christopher Lee. He finds himself swept into a romantic flashback maelstrom: the story of how they all were caught up in the fascist oppression in the 70s.
