Maria Eis Movies

Literally translated as Flight into the Reeds, Flucht ins Schilf was released in England and the U.S. as Brutality. The film is a surprisingly neorealist exercise from the Austrian film industry, which in the early 1950s tended to specialize in escapist operettas. Location-filmed in a bizarre reed jungle on the Austro-Hungarian border, the film is populated with Swamp Water-type Slavic eccentrics who seem cut off from civilization. The main character is Alexander Riss (Alexander Kerszt), a constable who tries to learn the reasons behind the brutal killing of a local youth. Riss' girlfriend Elizabeth (Ilka Windisch, in her first major role) can provide an alibi for one of the accused, but her words will mean lasting unhappiness for the people the audience cares about. The last few reels are a maelstrom of flashbacks which either clear or exonerate suspects (these scenes are rather confusing in the heavily re-edited American version). Cheaply produced, and enacted mostly by local amateurs, Flucht ins Schilf has its own raw power. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though the title of this German historical drama translates as The Trial, it bears no relation to the Franz Kafka novel of the same name. Instead, the film is based on a true story which took place in 19th century Hungary. When a young peasant girl commits suicide, the superstitious villagers, stirred up by the odiously anti-Semitic Baron Onody (Heinz Moog), immediately assume that she was the victim of a Jewish sacrificial ritual. Despite an utter lack of evidence (or common sense), all the Jews in town are rounded up and subjected to a mass trial. Risking his reputation and possibly his life, idealistic lawyer Dr. Eövötes (Ewald Balser) defends the Jews, forcing all of Hungary to come face to face with its blind and stupid prejudices. The first postwar effort by director G.W. Pabst, Der Prozess has been interpreted by some as Pabst's act of attrition after his reluctant professional association with the Nazis during WWII. Whatever the case, the film, which earned Pabst a Best Director award at the 1948 Venice Film Festival, remains one of the director's finest works. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi