Caught between supporting his fellow Czech countrymen and kowtowing to the invading Nazis, a wealthy German-born mill owner (Waschke) struggles to protect himself and his Jewish wife (Herzsprung) in this largely unexceptional WWII period piece. Based on a true story that culminated with the expulsion of 3 million Germans from Czechoslovakia, the film leaps through years with a rapidity that negates a good deal of its sweep. Habermann compensates for its under-occupation familiarity with poignant performances, confident direction and an impressively sober sense of how the era's tragedy kept expanding exponentially.
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