For the Fatherland
About For the Fatherland
Count Ivan von Kaunowitz, an officer from another country, spies under a diplomatic cover. At a court ball he charms Ebba von Tell and, through her, meets her father, a chamberlain who lives near the fortress he has been sent to map. On a hunt he slips into the forbidden ground and insults one of Ebba's Sami friends, who follows him. Ebba sees through the count and rejects him. He shaves his mustache, passes as a knife-grinder, and lodges with the fisherman's daughter Gunhild, who helps him without knowing it. A coded message orders him to blow the railway bridge into the fortress. The Sami man catches him at the charge and pushes him into the rapids, where he dies.
Cast & crew
More about For the Fatherland
Georg af Klercker and Lasse Ring (Ragnar Ring) directed. Ring wrote the script; af Klercker adapted it and played von Kaunowitz. The working title was Skärsliparen, the knife-grinder.
Themes
Background
The film opened in March 1914, before the First World War, and is set around the garrison town of Sollefteå. Nordische Filmtage later billed it as a picture from the pre-war spy scare.
Making
Pathé's Swedish branch produced the film. Af Klercker, already known as an actor, cast himself as the officer who shaves off his mustache and hides as a traveling knife-grinder in Gunhild's house.
Look
Henrik Jaenzon shot the Lidingö studio scenes, further studio footage in Copenhagen, and the Sollefteå exteriors, including the railway bridge and the rapids.
Preservation
A copy circulates from an Internet Archive transfer of the silent film.
Notes
- It opened on 16 March 1914 at the Victoria in Malmö and at Gyllene Göken in Stockholm.
- Henrik Jaenzon photographed studio scenes on Lidingö, some studio work in Copenhagen, and exteriors at Sollefteå.
- Lilly Jacobsson plays Ebba von Tell. J. Lange plays Gunhild.
- Export titles included Spionen fra Østerland in Denmark, L'espion d'Oesterland in France, and El espía de Westerland in Spain.
- The Swedish Film Database lists it as suitable for all audiences.
- A 2019 Nordische Filmtage Lübeck screening ran about 48 minutes, with live music by TroubaDuo.
Scenes
- Von Kaunowitz leaves the hunting party and walks into the forbidden ground around the fortress.
- Clean-shaven, he sets up as a knife-grinder and takes a room in Gunhild's house.
- At the railway bridge the Sami man shoves him into the rapids before the charge can be fired.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-fr-fderneslandet-aka-for-the-fatherland)
