While almost the entirety of Transit centers around Georg’s performance as the writer figure, this clip is selected because it can show the viewer the strains that come with pretending to be someone you are not for too long. His actual performances can be seen when interacting with the police and consulate officials in other scenes, but this is where the mask comes off; when he finally retires and is all alone, Georg finds the writer’s character becoming bland where it once fascinated him. It has effectively become normalized in his mind.

All of the information in this scene, however, comes from the narrator instead of from George himself. This is the case for much of the film, but I believe it is being used perfectly here. As Georg has effectively become a refugee or person in transit, he requires someone else to tell his story for him. Perhaps this speaks to the real world, where the lives of migrants are rarely ever told from their own lips. This effect is of course amplified by the fact that in other scenes, the narrator refers to himself as “I” but to Greorg as “he,” indicating that the narrator is a person other than the protagonist. This is a sort of combination of first-person and third-person point of view that adds to the story of the film as one of a migrant, almost without a voice.