Believed to have been lost until a copy was discovered in a Paris flea market in 2015, this silent gem from 1924 was painstakingly restored by Austria's national film archive. In the mythical republic of Utopia things have gone sour. The economy is stagnant, the currency has become worthless, protests by the hordes of unemployed workers are growing by the day. The ruling party turns to the usual scapegoat for the nation's problems: the Jews. An anti-Semitic law passes that forces all Jews to leave the country. At first, the decision is met with celebration. Though darkly comedic and influenced by German Expressionism, the film contains ominous sequences, such as the shots of freight trains transporting Jews out of the city. The stinging critique of Nazism in the film is part of the reason it no longer screened in public after 1933 (all complete prints were thought to be destroyed).
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