Well shot and always watchable dramatisation of an incident at the very end of the Second World War in Europe that not many people know about.
On 2 May 1945, six days before fighting would end, a convoy of German troops smashes through the frontier into the tiny neutral country of Liechtenstein. It consists of about 500 people, soldiers from parts of the Soviet Union that the Germans had occupied earlier plus some women and children, all under the command of General Smyslovski. At the Yalta conference in February, the Western allies had agreed that all such people they came across would be sent back to the Soviet Union, where their fate was highly uncertain.
Powerless to expel such a large armed force, the Liechtenstein government allow them to stay and be fed as refugees if they give up their weapons and uniforms and work on farms. The Soviets do not accept that the Yalta agreement should be flouted in this way, even though neutral Liechtenstein was never party to it, and send army officers who try to bully the government into handing them over.
Defied by the prime minister, who insists that his minute country is a democracy under the rule of law and will only release those now under its protection who want to return voluntarily, the Soviets switch to a charm offensive. A falsely jovial colonel and an attractive female captain go round the farms addressing and cajoling the men, weary after years of war and lonely in a foreign land. About 200 agree to take a train back, which stops when it reaches Hungary and they are all shot on the spot.
A postcript says that Smyslovski had been in touch with the Americans, to whom he was able to give valuable information, and managed to arrange passages to Argentina for himself, his wife, and many of the remaining men.
While the film shows no sympathy at all for the Soviet Union, it has the more difficult task of not glorifying the soldiers who had fought for the Nazis under their formidable leader Smyslovski. Once in civilian clothes out on the farms, the troops become ordinary young men for whom the war is over. Smyslovski and his wife are befriended by the prime minister and his wife, who recognise that he is striving to save his men and not just himself.
Like most of their little country, they feel that they should look after their unexpected visitors and feel nothing but repulsion for Stalin's brutal dictatorship. They are also aware that their far larger and richer neighbour Switzerland, equally neutral, had done much to help victims of the war and they want to do their bit as well. Not saints but decent folk, the heroes of the story are the 12,000 Liechtensteiners.
On 2 May 1945, six days before fighting would end, a convoy of German troops smashes through the frontier into the tiny neutral country of Liechtenstein. It consists of about 500 people, soldiers from parts of the Soviet Union that the Germans had occupied earlier plus some women and children, all under the command of General Smyslovski. At the Yalta conference in February, the Western allies had agreed that all such people they came across would be sent back to the Soviet Union, where their fate was highly uncertain.
Powerless to expel such a large armed force, the Liechtenstein government allow them to stay and be fed as refugees if they give up their weapons and uniforms and work on farms. The Soviets do not accept that the Yalta agreement should be flouted in this way, even though neutral Liechtenstein was never party to it, and send army officers who try to bully the government into handing them over.
Defied by the prime minister, who insists that his minute country is a democracy under the rule of law and will only release those now under its protection who want to return voluntarily, the Soviets switch to a charm offensive. A falsely jovial colonel and an attractive female captain go round the farms addressing and cajoling the men, weary after years of war and lonely in a foreign land. About 200 agree to take a train back, which stops when it reaches Hungary and they are all shot on the spot.
A postcript says that Smyslovski had been in touch with the Americans, to whom he was able to give valuable information, and managed to arrange passages to Argentina for himself, his wife, and many of the remaining men.
While the film shows no sympathy at all for the Soviet Union, it has the more difficult task of not glorifying the soldiers who had fought for the Nazis under their formidable leader Smyslovski. Once in civilian clothes out on the farms, the troops become ordinary young men for whom the war is over. Smyslovski and his wife are befriended by the prime minister and his wife, who recognise that he is striving to save his men and not just himself.
Like most of their little country, they feel that they should look after their unexpected visitors and feel nothing but repulsion for Stalin's brutal dictatorship. They are also aware that their far larger and richer neighbour Switzerland, equally neutral, had done much to help victims of the war and they want to do their bit as well. Not saints but decent folk, the heroes of the story are the 12,000 Liechtensteiners.