''Covered Tracks'' (german: Verwehte Spuren) is a 1938 German

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Veit Harlan Veit Harlan (22 September 1899 – 13 April 1964) was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the highpoint of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film ''Jud Süß'' (1940) makes him controversial ...

and starring

Kristina Söderbaum Beata Margareta Kristina Söderbaum (5 September 1912 – 12 February 2001) was a Swedish-born German film actress, producer, and photographer. She performed in Nazi-era films made by a German state-controlled production company. Early life S� ...

Philip Dorn Philip Dorn (born Hein van der Niet; 30 September 1901 – 9 May 1975), sometimes billed as Frits van Dongen (his screen name for German films prior to World War II), was a Dutch American actor who had a career in Hollywood. He was best kn ...

, and Charlotte Schultz. It was shot at the

EFA Studios The EFA Studios or Halensee Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Halensee. They were a prominent centre of film production in the Silent film, silent and early sound era. Constructed in 1919 after the First World War, they wer ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Halensee Halensee () is a ''locality'' (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Halensee was established as a villa and tenement settlement in about 1880, in the suburb of Wilmersdorf, which became part of Great ...

and the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Firs ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

with

location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for exam ...

taking place in both cities as well as in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Karl Haacker Karl Haacker (25 July 1890 – 15 December 1945) was a German art director active in designing film sets during the Weimar and Nazi eras.Eisner p.351 He is sometimes credited as Carl Haacker. Selected filmography * '' The Student of Prague'' (19 ...

and

Hermann Warm Hermann Warm was a German art director for films. Born in 1889 (died 1976) in Berlin, Germany, Warm was an important figure in the expressionist movement of the 1920s. Warm entered the German film industry in 1912 after working on-stage for a whil ...

. It premiered at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

.Schiweck & Toonen p.144

Plot summary

A young woman named Séraphine checks into a Parisian

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

with her ailing mother, having arrived to attend the 1867 International Exposition. When she comes back to the hotel with her mother's medication, she finds their room vacant and none of the staff remembers ever seeing her or her mother checking into the hotel. Séraphine then embarks on a quest to uncover the mystery of her mother's disappearance and prove her own sanity.

Cast

References

Bibliography

* * Noack, Frank. ''Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker''. University Press of Kentucky, 2016. * Schiweck, Ingo & Toonen, Hans. ''Maharadscha, Tschetnik, Kriegsheimkehrer: der Schauspieler Frits van Dongen oder Philip Dorn''. Der Andere Verlag, 2003.

External links

* 1938 films Films of Nazi Germany 1930s historical drama films German historical drama films 1930s German-language films Films directed by Veit Harlan Films about missing people Films set in 1867 Films set in Paris Films based on urban legends Films with screenplays by Thea von Harbou German black-and-white films Tobis Film films 1938 drama films 1930s German films Films shot at Bavaria Studios Films shot at Halensee Studios Films shot in Paris {{1930s-Germany-film-stub

Plot summary

Cast

See also

References

Bibliography

External links