This movie was made in the closing months of ww2 in order to bolster german resistance to the allied forces. By 1944 germany was losing the war. Even by the year before that it was getting to be clear that they couldn't be held back much longer. With american and british bombers relentlessly flattening cities from 30 thousand feet and hopes of victory fading quickly, the german film industry desperately needed something to pull the morale out of the toilet. Kolberg is essentially a 19th century story of a prussian town that refuses to submit to french forces under Napoleon. The town in the movie is technically a fictitious take on what actually happened in regards to kolberg, since the real one was forced to surrender and sign a peace treaty with the french after Napoleon's forces had encircled it. The actors all do a good job for the most part, and it is surprising to know that the germans pulled so many resources and men off the frontlines to make this movie when they should have been fighting the USSR. In all, it is propaganda, but it must be looked at in the context of its time when everything seemed hopeless.
Review of Burning Hearts
