Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision

This is a magnificent, career-capping achievement from one of the great storytellers of our era.

It is superlatively well performed and well directed with a real narrative grip.

Reitz maintains his visionary sweep through history, favoring plot over development of characters, except as embodiments of large themes.

Though in several ways related to the previous Heimat films, this beautifully shot black-and-white feature is accessible even for those unfamiliar with Reitz’s previous work.

Home From Home is imbued with the villagers’ attachment to the land, but while dutifully capturing the period, the film feels less layered than Mr. Reitz’s past work.

For all of its evident toil in recreating historically accurate environments and researching the precise conditions in varying regions, it has little force as a work of cinema.