Shattered

(1921)

47 minutes

Drama / Silent

Directed by Lupu Pick

Cast: Werner Krauss, Edith Posca, Hermine StraBmann-Witt, Paul Otto and Lupu Pick

The silent film shows the traditional, regular life of a railway track man, his wife and daughter in a far, secluded house during the winter season. Mayer and Pick interject tougher perturbations into their regular procedures, starting with the difference in the weather. The film peaks when the railway monitor comes into the scene. 

This film is a depressing drama with no subtitles, with the characters only conveying their emotions. The sections monitor rapes the daughter of a track-walker. The mother of the girl is embarrassed by this and disappears into a storm and dies. The track-walker discovers his wife’s dead body and prepares a burial for her. The girl cannot take keeping her shameful secret anymore and confesses to her father the brutality put upon her. Her father loses it and suffocates the monitor to death and hands himself to the policemen.