'The Ghost Writer' Premieres in Berlin: Is Roman Polanski's New Film Really about Him?

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This fictional politician's problems almost perfectly mirror those of the real-life Roman Polanski. Both of them are cosmopolitan men trapped by their past and severely restricted in their movements. Both are powerful individuals at war with a system that they view as being unfair. "If the British government wants to hand me over to this kangaroo court," Harris' fictional ex-prime minister says, "then fuck them! I'll go where people want me."

Given these similarities, the film could be seen as making a comment on Polanski's own situation or as supporting the case he made in his 1984 autobiography: "As far back as I can remember, the line between fantasy and reality has been hopelessly blurred."

The similarity between Polanski's reality and the novel's fiction, Harris says, "must have been one of the things that attracted him to it." "Maybe subconsciously," he adds. In any case, the irony of the story is "hard to overlook," especially since the film is set in the two countries Polanski can't travel to: England and America.

In the end, the film was shot in Germany. The islands of Sylt and Usedom doubled as Martha's Vineyard, while Berlin's Charlottenstrasse was transformed into a London street by adding red double-decker buses and English-language signs. As precarious as Polanski's situation may appear, he has been lucky in his misfortune. "If he had been arrested in April, let's say, when he was living freely in Berlin, it would have been a disaster," Harris says. "It would have been bankruptcy."

In April 2009, Polanski was hard at work shooting the $40 million production. If a main actor breaks a leg or the director is run over by a bus during shooting, the insurance company picks up the tab for any financial losses incurred. But there is no insurance against arrest warrants that are decades old.

Living in Uncertainty

While Polanski was in jail awaiting extradition in Winterthur, Switzerland, the only visitors he was allowed were his lawyer and his wife. Although the shooting phase of the film had been completed, post-production was still in full swing. In order to allow Polanski to stay abreast of the film's progress, his lawyer would bring him DVDs of the film as it was being edited. Robert Benmussa, the film's producers, will assure you that: "The final cut is exactly the final cut he would like to have." One time, when Harris visited Polanski in jail, he was in the process of checking the film's German subtitles.

These days, Polanski has to wear an electronic ankle monitor. If he tries to leave his property in Gstaad and flee -- to France, for example, where he'd be safe from American prosecutors -- the tag will set off an alarm. If he stays put, Polanski is free to live in his chalet and do as he pleases until the courts have ruled on the extradition request. He can receive guests, make phone calls, drink champagne, reflect on his future or even play music. In fact, Polanski sings a duet in French with his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, on her latest album. "What are you doing in my bed?" Seigner asks. "I am love personified," Polanski replies.

Toward the end of last year, Polanski wrote a letter to Parisian intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy thanking everyone for the support he had received "from across the world." With Polanski's consent, Levy published the letter on his Web site. In it, Polanski said expressions of solidarity were "heartening" to those locked in a cell and that these messages had been "a source of comfort and hope" to him in his "darkest moments."

Polanski's uncertainty about his future will probably persist for quite some time. On January 22, a judge in California rejected a petition by Polanski's lawyers to conduct the proceedings in Los Angeles and in the director's absence. "I choose to insist in the defense of the integrity of the judicial system that he appear," Judge Peter Espinoza said, calling the initial ruling "a carrot … not a stick." Polanski's lawyers plan to challenge the judge's decision.

Meanwhile, back in Switzerland, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlump has said that the extradition proceedings could last "up to a year."

Indeed, it's starting to seem as if all sides are more than happy to just let the case drag on. The Americans are waiting on a decision from the Swiss -- and the Swiss on a decision from America. Polanski's wife says her husband has already gotten started on his next film. Reportedly, it's an adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play "The God of Carnage" -- all of which takes place in a single room.

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• Part 1: Is Roman Polanski's New Film Really about Him?
• Part 2: Silence and Seclusion
• Part 3: Blurring Fact and Fiction