2007 is the twentieth anniversary of the death of Primo Levi, a philosophical writer who was liberated from the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. With remnants of the destruction of World War II visible everywhere he looked, the author began a 1,000-mile journey from Poland to his home in Turin, Italy. In this insightful and creative documentary by Davide Ferrario, the Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper reads sections from Levi's book The Truce (in Europe) and The Reawakening (in the U.S.) in juxtaposition with modern-day images, events, and vignettes from Poland, Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria. It is fascinating to see the political, economic, and social changes that have taken place in post-communist Europe.

The documentary begins with a 60th anniversary ceremony at Auschwitz, the concentration camp where so many suffered and died. In Crakow, Poland, Ferrario visits the steel mill of Nowa Huta which once had 40,000 workers; now only 8,000 work there. In Ukraine, the filmmakers shift their emphasis and focus on the murder of Igor Bilozir, a singer and national hero who was beaten to death by some Russian youths. In Belarius, the crew visits a collective farm and encounter some problems with the local KGB who wants to present an uplifting portrait of the region. In Chernobyl, the fallout from the nuclear disaster is still shaping lives. Ferrario interviews a survivor from the ghost town of Prypiat. The poverty in Moldova has forced thousands to emigrate to Romania for work. A sign of globalization is that in Budapest many Chinese run market stalls in the city. The most troubling vignette takes place in Munich where neo-Nazis are on the rise building a political platform on fear, hatred, and nationalism.

Throughout the documentary there are glimpses of Primo Levi from archival footage as he walks down streets and is bent over by the anguish and pain and despair he experienced. At one point in The Truce, he observes: "It seems as if the world is heading for disaster." He committed suicide in 1987. Today, many Europeans are still struggling to make ends meet, to find meaningful work, and to live peacefully with strangers from other places.