“Almost unknown today, INRI – Die Katastrophe eines Volkes, was the first film produced by the German production company Cinescop, based in Munich. The new company aimed to create a distinctive ‘Cinescop style’, a radical departure from theatrical tradition, emphasizing mise-en-scène and camerawork. Director Ludwig Beck refused actors with theatrical experience, preferring non-professionals he could mould to become true cinema actors. Beck believed this would result in a pre form of cinematic expression. The film’s topical themes were also visionary, dealing with the highly symbolic adventures of one Dmitrij Kowalew, a Russian student who writes an idealistic treatise on law and economy; his ideas are stolen by the evil Alexej, who uses them to his own ends and attempts to destroy Dmitrij and subvert his utopian hopes for peace and humanity. The action takes us from Russia to Italy to Paris to the Caucasus mountains. Dmitrij surmounts a lifetime of intrigues and tragedy, never wavering in is quest to help his fellow man. Made in 1919-1920, in the wake of the Russian Revolution and at a time of great interest in Germany marked by the Spartacist uprisings (in Munich the local revolution had just collapsed, destroyed by pre-fascist and paramilitary troops), Die Katastrophe eines Volkes seems to have been well received by the public as well as contemporary critics. It was released by Ufa, which was unusual for a Bavarian film of the time. Reviewers praised the work on several levels – its impressive production values and fine photography by chief cameraman Franz B. Seyr; the sensational scenes of the circus and a theatre fire; its realistic crowd scenes; the acting, especially that of Ria Mabeck; and the film’s experimental style, including an early use of double and triple split-screens”.

(Catherine A.Surowiec, The European Film Archives at the Crossroads, The Lumière Project, Lisbona, 1996)