John Walter’s film takes us behind the scenes of the Public Theater’s timely 2006 production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children in New York’s Central Park. Walter chronicles the intricate decision making around this particular staging, which features adapted text by Tony Kushner and stars the indomitable Meryl Streep. With unprecedented access to all aspects of production—not just rehearsals but costuming, composing, and set design—Walter takes us inside the artistic process of living legends as he also reveals the history of Brecht’s original text. As Hitler came to power, Brecht was stripped of his German citizenship and exiled, only to find himself facing the House Un-American Activities Committee. The play was first performed in 1949 after Brecht’s forced return to Germany. This layered approach reveals a story within a story within a story by allowing the viewer to make profound connections between the events on stage, the circumstances of the playwright’s remarkable life, and the ways in which timeless themes of war and capitalism resonate today.  ST