Night Train to Lisbon (2013) — Portugal

Raimund Gregorius is a middle-aged Swiss man who's bored with his buttoned-up life as a professor of classics.  In a chance encounter with a woman on a bridge, he comes into the possession of a little book that changes his life.  The author is one Amadeu do Prado, and on an impulsive whim, Raimund takes the night train to Lisbon to learn all he can about this doctor, poet, and, it turns out, revolutionary.  This is partly a personal quest.  Many of Prado's passages move Raimund deeply.  His life feels so prosaic compared to Prado's.  The personal moves the story into the political, for Prado fought in the resistance against the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (d. 1970).  "They really lived!" exclaims Raimund.  And so, in the words of the little book, he must decide: "What could or should be done with the time that is left before us?"  This drama is based on the 2004 novel of the same title, and premiered at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival.  It's available on both Netflix and Amazon streaming.