''Superstition'' (German: ''Aberglaube'') is a 1919 German silent

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

Georg Jacoby Georg Jacoby (23 July 1882 – 21 February 1964) was a German film director and screenwriter.Profile
, bfi.org.uk; accessed ...

and starring

Ellen Richter Ellen Richter (born Käthe Weiß; 21 July 1891 – 11 September 1969) was an Austrian-Jewish film actress of the silent era. She was married to Willi Wolff, who directed many of her films. Ellen Richter composed her own production company to creat ...

and

Victor Janson Victor Arthur Eduard Janson ( lv, Viktors Artūrs Eduards Jansons; 25 September 1884 – 29 June 1960) was a German stage and film actor and film director of Latvians, Latvian ethnicity. Selected filmography Actor * ''Your Dearest Enemy'' (1916) ...

. ''The story begins at the circus where dancer Militza works. A jealous clown, Bajazzo stabs one of Militza's admirers to death. Militza escapes to the country village of Marienhagen, finding shelter in the house of a local Catholic priest. The priest also falls for Militza. When he is subsequently struck dead by a bolt of lightning one evening during Mass, his mother blames Militza and has her cast out of the village. On her way to the city, Militza joins a theatrical troupe. The leader of the troupe is disappointed with the general lack of artistic talent and begs Militza to leave with him. However, since he has a wife and two small children living in poverty, Militza refuses, and instead flees on her own. She survives a shipwreck, rescued by a nobleman who takes her to his country estate. Here she is able to recover from the traumatic events, finding peace and true love with the nobleman. As it turns out, however, her new home is located very close to the village where she was cast away after the death of the priest, whose vengeful mother learns kindles fear, anger, and superstition among the villagers. She even goes as far to accuse Militza of being a witch and a vampire who must be destroyed. In the end, the peasants, whipped up into an angry mob, start a riot, and Militza is stoned to death.'' ''An incomplete vintage Dutch release print, missing about one third of he original length, was identified in the nitrate collection of the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam in January 2020. A black & white preservation negative and a Desmetcolor print were subsequently produced at Haghefilm Digitaal, with funding generously provided by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. This restoration was screened at the

Giornate del Cinema Muto Le Giornate del cinema muto (referred to in English as Pordenone Silent Film Festival) is an annual festival of silent film held in October in Pordenone, northern Italy. It is the first, largest and most important international festival dedicated ...

in 2021.''

Cast

as Zigeunerin Militza *

as Bajazzo * Johannes Müller as Priester * Frieda Richter as Mutter des Priesters *

Frida Richard Frida Richard (born Friederike Raithel, 1 November 1873 – 12 September 1946) was an Austrian actress. Selected filmography * ''The Sin of Helga Arndt'' (1916) * '' The Queen's Love Letter'' (1916) * '' The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach'' (1917) * ...

as Mutter des Priesters * Peggy Longard

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009.

External links

* 1919 films Films of the Weimar Republic German silent feature films Films directed by Georg Jacoby 1919 drama films UFA GmbH films German black-and-white films Silent German drama films 1910s German films 1910s German-language films {{1910s-Germany-film-stub