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Frisians in Peril

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Wikipedia article




'Frisians in Peril' (German: 'Friesennot') is a 1935 German drama film directed by Peter Hagen and starring Friedrich Kayler, Jessie Vihrog and Valry Inkijinoff. Made for Nazi propaganda purposes, it concerns a village of ethnic Frisians in Russia.

The film's sets were designed by the art directors Robert A. Dietrich and Bernhard Schwidewski. Location shooting took place around Bispingen. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo.

The film has also been known as 'Dorf im roten Sturm' (Germany; reissue title) and 'Frisions in Distress' (USA).

Plot



Soviet authorities are making life as difficult as possible for a village of Volga Germans, most of whose ancestors originated in the Frisian Islands, with taxes and other oppression.Erwin Leiser, 'Nazi Cinema', pp. 39-40

After Mette, a half-Russian, half-Frisian woman, becomes the girlfriend of Kommissar Tschernoff, the Frisians murder her and throw her body in a swamp.Erwin Leiser, 'Nazi Cinema', p. 40

Open violence breaks out and all of the Red Army soldiers stationed nearby are killed by the villagers. They then set fire to their village and flee.

Cast



*Friedrich Kayler as Jrgen Wagner

*Helene Fehdmer as Kathrin Wagner

*Valry Inkijinoff as Kommissar Tschernoff

*Jessie Vihrog as Das Mdchen Mette

*Hermann Schomberg as Klaus Niegebll

*Ilse Frstenberg as Drte Niegebll

*Kai Mller as Hauke Peters

*Fritz Hoopts as Ontje Ibs

*Martha Ziegler as Wiebke Detlevsen

*Gertrud Boll as Telse Detlevsen

*Maria Koppenhfer as Frau Winkler

*Marianne Simson as Hilde Winkler

*Franz Stein as Christian Krger

*Aribert Grimmer as Kommissar Krappien

Motifs



Despite Nazi hostility to religion, a cynical piece of anti-Communist propaganda depicts the Communists as posting obscene anti-religious posters, and the Frisians as piously declaring that all authority comes from God.Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p40-1

The portrayal of Kommissar Tschernoff does not conform to the heavy-handed depiction of Communists as brutal and murderous in such films as 'Flchtlinge'; he is truly and passionately in love with Mette, and only with her death does he unleash his soldiers. A villager objects to the affair on the grounds that even though her mother was Russian, her father's Frisian blood "outweighs" foreign blood, and therefore she must not throw herself at a foreigner. Her murder is presented as in accordance with the Nazi principle of "race defilement."Richard Grunberger, 'The 12-Year Reich', p. 384,

Ban and reversal



After the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, in 1939, the film was banned; in 1941, after the invasion of Russia, it was reissued under its new title.Erwin Leiser, 'Nazi Cinema' p. 41

References




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