Preceded by: German newsreel, April 1, 1933 (Emelka-Tonwoche #14). From the early phase of the Third Reich, a newsreel not entirely identified with the new regime. (17 mins, B&W) (Flüchtlinge). Honored as the best German feature for the 1933-34 season, Gustav Ucicky's Fugitives unfolds on the Sino-Soviet frontier in 1928, against a backdrop of mass confusion and political upheaval. Cluttered initial images of chaotic streets lead us to a group of Volga Germans on the run from Bolshevik oppressors. The Harbin of Fugitives represents a displaced Weimar Republic, an extraterritorial zone of multiple languages, nationalities and races, where red commissars run amuck through streets of turmoil and frenzy, a place in which politicians talk much and do nothing to relieve German suffering. The narrative unites the motley gathering of German nationals in a common cause under the patriot/Führer, Arneth (Hans Albers). "Out of the flaming inferno, home to a German heaven" (Ernst Bloch): films like Fugitives assured exiled and disillusioned citizens of the Reich a safe return passage.-E.R.