The thread on great opening 15 minutes of movies got me thinking about this film which I watched many years ago. It had a great opener: a closeup profile of two men in uniform running with a white horse running between them. So basically for a minute or so it was just the three heads bobbing up and down, no dialog.
I didn’t know anything about the film when I rented it except that it was not an obscure film, in b&w, and it took place during wartime. I thought it was set in WWII but… no Nazis. So then I tried to figure out when it was supposed to be (without googling, that would be cheating) and who was fighting whom. I concluded that it was around the time of the end of WWI but the war part was a complete mystery (no “Allies”). (Afterwards, I think I read they were in Prussia.) Most of the film took place at the country house belonging to one of the running men, it was their headquarters and a field hospital, and fighting in nearby fields. The man’s sister was in love/had an “understanding” with the second man but she was also supporting the opposing side, I think she was a socialist? a revolutionary? At one point she sneaks off to the nearest village to give information/food/help to one of her comrades who is being hunted.
I don’t want to spoil the ending but it was pretty shocking.
I even thought I was watching a fairly contemporary film until I watched one of the extras at the end. They interviewed the lead actress and she was like 20 years older! I’ve looked at titles of German films from the 60s and the 70s and nothing sounds familiar.
When I did finally google for more information (which I’ve now forgotten), there was a term for these people in this small war… kind of like how “white Russians” is a description of a certain class of people at a certain time. I’d heard this term before but never knew what it signified.
Any guesses?