The Story:
In the frozen ruins of Stalingrad 1943 German soldiers including The Pianist (Paul Crauchet) The SS Captain (Gilles Katz) The Astronomer (Alberto Cavalcanti) The Pastor’s Son (Frederic Muninger) and The Bitter Son write desperate final letters home revealing their psychological unraveling.
Abandoned by the Nazi war machine they suffer frostbite that ends a musician’s art guilt over killings cosmic emptiness loss of faith and bitter betrayal by fathers who pushed them into the invasion as Soviet forces close in.
This avant-garde 1969 drama by Gilles Katz intercuts stark vignettes with historical footage for a somber anti-war mood where censors suppress the letters leaving only anonymous defeat in the wasteland.
