The chilling Crisis was the first documentary to report on Europe’s approaching catastrophe. Following Germany’s annexation of Austria, Hitler and the world’s eyes turned to Czechoslovakia. FPL and Frontier Films affiliated Kline bluffed his way into the country as a Nazi sympathiser, enlisting local filmmakers, Burger and Hackenschmied, to help document the Nazi’s incremental takeover. Premiering in New York two days before Czechoslovakia’s final surrender to Germany, by the end of the year WWII had begun. Kline’s warning had become reality. An extraordinary historic and cinematic document.
Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York
