Underplayed Gems

The City Without Jews (1924)

The City Without Jews poster
Original title
Die Stadt ohne Juden
Directed by
Hans Karl Breslauer
Genre
drama film, silent film, science fiction film
Country
Austria
Runtime
1h 20m
Rated
0
Rating
6.5 of 10 from 28 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

In a near-future Austria, the government expels all Jewish citizens from Vienna. The film follows the social and economic collapse that follows their removal.

satiricalabsurdistmelancholicdarkly comicpropheticunsettlingstylized

What happens

The City Without Jews (German: Die Stadt ohne Juden) is a 1924 Austrian Expressionist film by Hans Karl Breslauer, based on the novel of the same title by Hugo Bettauer. The film is one of the few surviving Expressionist films from Austria and has therefore been well researched. The film was first shown on 25 July 1924 in Vienna. In his novel, published in 1922, Hugo Bettauer succeeded in creating a relatively accurate allegorical vision of the near future. Although the book was intended for entertainment and as a satirical response to the primitive antisemitism of the 1920s, it immediately became Bettauer's most popular work. It was translated into several languages, and sold over a quarter of a million copies. Shortly after the premiere of the film Hugo Bettauer was murdered by Otto Rothstock, a former member of the Nazi Party, who was lionized by the antisemitic Austrian masses and was released less than two years after having been committed to a psychiatric institution. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.