The focus of this wartime propaganda film from 1940 is the foreman Keith, who works at a Polish sawmill, not far from the German border. It is 1939 and the War is fast approaching. The Polish workers at the sawmill revolt and kill the mill's German owner, as well as threaten their German colleagues. Keith flees with the children of his dead boss and joins other German refugees on their way to safety across the borders of the Reich.
Production
Massive sets built while actual war loomed. The irony is thick.
Acting
Brigitte Horney commits to propaganda like it's Shakespeare.
Director
Viktor Tourjansky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released weeks before France fell, this was meant to justify invasion. Audiences reportedly laughed at the heavy-handedness.
Goebbels personally demanded reshoots for being too subtle. Even Nazis thought it was too much.
DE
