Film: The Young Karl Marx

It's 1844, and 26-year-old Karl Marx meets Friedrich Engels in Paris. Engels adds the last piece of the puzzle to the global vision of the young Marx. Together, amid censorship, police repression and political upheaval, they lead the workers' movement into the modern era.

The Young Karl Marx shows the inventor of Marxist theory during the years when his ideas were crystallizing, when he was confronted with the harsh exploitation of the workers of Europe.

The film is about his lifelong friendship and intellectual alliance with the rich German industrialist Engels, who certainly barely noticed Marx at first. Together they published the Communist Manifesto in 1848.

The Young Karl Marx is a film by Raoul Peck. The filmmaker, political activist, former Haitian Minister of Culture, and current director of the French film academy Le Fémis previously directed the Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro, an ode to the writer James Baldwin. His new film premiered at the film Festival in Berlin; the main roles are played by August Diehl as Marx and Stefan Konarske as Engels.

The Guardian gave the film four stars and wrote: "It shouldn't work, but it does, due to the intelligence of the acting and the stamina and concentration of the writing and directing."