PHOTOGRAPH MAARTEN DE BOER/THE LICENSING PROJECT
Akeen student of the past and historical fiction, Keira Knightley has an avowed preference and enthusiasm for period films. In The Imitation Game, Anna Karenina, A Dangerous Method and this year’s Colette, Knightley revels in recreating characters from bygone days. It’s therefore no surprise that she is currently starring in The Aftermath, a romantic drama set in Germany after the Second World War. Knightley plays Rachael Morgan, the unhappy wife of British colonel Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke), who is stationed in Hamburg to oversee the city’s reconstruction. Complications ensue when her husband allows the previous owner of their mansion on the Elbe, a former high-ranking Wehrmacht officer (Alexander Skarsgård), and his troubled daughter to stay with them, and Rachael becomes attracted to him.