Der Prozess

Based on a true story from 1882, Pabst goes back to the beginnings of modern Jew-hatred. With this trick, he succeeds in not directly confronting post-war society with the Nazi regime, but all the more emphatically pointing out the consequences of anti-Semitism. Pabst also skilfully brushes Nazi cinema against the grain: he shows motifs from propaganda cinema, Jewish orthodoxy - not in the form of disgusting caricatures or foreign exoticism, however, but as normal, pious people. The singing of the prayer leader in the synagogue is not a counterpoint to German folk songs as in JUD SÜSS. Rather, the film functions as a mirror. DER PROZESS is the first real filmic confrontation with anti-Semitism in Austria. The cinemas remained empty at the time. (Klaus Davidowicz)