'Short Film of the Year–A Nazi Rite of Passage': Gösta Werner and the making of The Sacrifice (1945). Issue 4 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stjernholm, Emil
• Is Part Of: Historical journal of film, radio and television. Volume 40:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 732
• Page End: 749
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Motion pictures -- History -- Periodicals; Broadcasting -- History -- Periodicals; 302.23409005
• DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2020.1763559
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0143-9685

Abstract

Abstract : This article reconsiders the Swedish filmmaker Gösta Werner's experimental short film The Sacrifice ( Midvinterblot, 1945) and places its production history in an ideological context. In this case study, the article shows that The Sacrifice, which depicts gruesome old Norse pagan rituals of sacrifice, threw light on the director's collaboration with the Nazi controlled German film company Universum Film AG (UFA) in the production of propaganda newsreels and that the film evoked a debate on the representation of violence in the aftermath of World War II. While some critics accused The Sacrifice of being influenced by 'Blut und Boden' and other elements of Nazi ideology others praised the film for its formal innovations and it was named the Swedish short film of the year. Tracing how these practices affected the authorial discourse surrounding Werner during and after the war, the article raises questions not only concerning how other media practitioners handled this chapter of his life, but also how he himself treated the war years in the construction of his own biographical legend.