The film 'Never Look Away' is about a painter who is first exposed to modern art as child growing up in Nazi Germany. His aunt takes him to an exhibit of modern art curated by Nazis, meant to show what degenerate art looks like — the kind of art the Nazis banned. By the time the boy becomes an art student, Russian communists have taken over East Germany where he lives, and all art is expected to be propaganda, showing images of happy working people. Later, he flees to West Germany and attends an art school known to be avant garde. The artists there consider representational painting—the kind of painting he does—to be obsolete.

Implicit in the movie are questions like: Why make art? And who is it for? The movie is inspired by the life of Gerhard Richter, one of the most famous German painters of his generation. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who wrote and directed the film, spoke with Terry Gross.