Crisis

director: Herbert Kline, Alexander Hackenschmied, Hanuš Burger

original title: Crisis

country: United States

year: 1939

running time: 70 min.

synopsis

In the summer of 1938, American producer and director Herbert Kline came to Czechoslovakia to document the crisis in Europe. At that time, violence caused by Nazi small combat troops culminated in the Czechoslovak border region, although the officially Runciman Report, influenced by the Berlin and Sudeten German propaganda described the oppression of the Germans. The film Crisis played a significant role in rebutting the distorted arguments. The film crew travelled all over Czechoslovakia for several months, recording the coexistence of the Czechs and Germans and filming the treasonous actions of the Henleinists who had only one goal – to disrupt the democratic republic.

Restored by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

“In Habrová near the Czech border, soldiers are restoring order after a Nazi pogrom. German democrats, Czechs, Catholics and Jews were murdered in bed and shot in the street. Yet these people had lived here together for centuries. Anyone who was not a Nazi, was identified as a victim.” From the film Crisis

biography

Alexander Hackenschmied (1907–2004) was one of the most important figures of Czech film and photographic avant-garde. In Czechoslovakia, he made several short films (Bezúčelná procházka (Aimless Walk), Na Pražském hradě (At Prague Castle)). After the film Crisis he was forced to leave the country and moved to the United States. He went down in the history of cinematography mainly as the author of Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), a film he made with his then-wife, Maya Deren.

more about film

director:	Herbert Kline, Alexander Hackenschmied, Hanuš Burger
producer:	Herbert Kline
script:	Vincent Sheean
music:	H. W. Susskind, Jaroslav Harvan

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