This film is part of the famous Asta Nielsen Series, and surely one the best dramatic films ever made. The plot is quite simple. A young Englishwoman on an excursion to the Spreewald with her father and other travellers falls in love with a farmhand; the two lovers take flight; while being pursued by her relatives, she is left alone by her beloved, who goes for help; she falls into the water and drowns. Psychologically, however, this simple plot is so well developed that you scarcely notice the absence of the spoken word. The advantage which cinema has over theatre is that a film can faithfully reproduce nature: the rustling of the trees in the Spreewald, the wonderful light reflections on the water – particularly beautiful is the magical glow of the moon – the lapping of the waters, the corpse among the water lilies, the idyllic farmhouses. All this can only be shown to perfection in the cinema, not in the theatre.

Anonymous, “Der Kinematograph”, Dusseldorf, 8 novembre 1911