“It has to be said right away, this film […] represents a high point of cinematographic craftsmanship”. A fundamentally enthusiastic review published by the magazine “Der Kinobesitzer” after a promotional screening by the production company Sascha-Film manages to dress this film’s pictures of household items and church bells being manufactured into ammunition as a proof of technical ability and productiveness. “We could watch the transformation of church bells into copper and learn how the copper was made into brass, how scrap metal turned into steel and then into perfect artillery missiles”. Contemporary audiences, though, might have been fascinated by this intriguing piece of cinematographic work because it was an uncommonly frank document showing the general shortage of resources that affected both the military and everyday routine within the borders of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy by 1917.

Anna Dobringer