Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti
Plot: Nail-biting drama depicting a fictional Nazi occupation of a tranquil British village, and the transition of its mild-mannered inhabitants into a determined resistance force.
This deliciously tense what-if thriller is surely the jewel in the crown of wartime propaganda. A troop of Nazis infiltrates an English village disguised as Royal Engineers and proceed to insinuate themselves into village life with chilling ease. All the while they are cutting communications with the outside and readying the way in preparation for a full-scale invasion, so that when the villagers finally work out that there's something amiss, it's too late. Isolated from official channels, the unfortunate Britishers are forced to consider whether they have it in them to kill in order to avert a German takeover. Naturally, given the film's purpose, they do; but the depiction of their resistence is unflinchingly brutal and shocking for its time.
