Comradeship

Georg Wilhelm Pabst's 1931 film draws on the Courrières mining disaster of 1906, an explosion in northern France that killed one thousand and ninety-nine miners and drew rescue teams from Westphalia in Germany. The film moves that event into the postwar years: when an explosion traps French miners at a pit on the French and German border, German miners decide to reach them through an old war tunnel. It was made as a French and German co-production and shot in two languages; the actors speak their own and there is no translation. What Pabst builds is a call to solidarity, but the film does not leave it naive: in the final scene the border fence underground is put back by officials. In 1931, amid rising nationalism, that was an explicit political choice. Who it's for: viewers interested in Weimar cinema, the early sound period and anti-war films. Who it's not for: anyone wanting individual character depth, or uncomfortable with enclosed underground scenes.