The Definitive Watchlist For Devotees of Au bout du monde: Cult Guide

Dir: Wallace Worsley

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.

Dir: Fred Niblo

Highly decorated for her service as a wartime nurse, Mrs. Nancy Fair returns home after the hostilities to find her family falling apart. Nevertheless, she goes on a lecture tour in hopes of doing more good. Her second homecoming finds Mr. Fair involved in an affair with Angy Brice, a neighboring widow; her son, Alan, married and in bad company; and her daughter, Sylvia, eloped. The search for Sylvia brings Mrs. Fair to her senses and reunites the family.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Famous Mrs. Fair perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Anthony Young

Films shot by newsreel companies and army cameramen are featured to tell the story of what it was like for soldiers during World War I.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Heroes All perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Donald Crisp

During the Civil War, young widow Rachel Hayne is among those "held by the enemy" when her old family home is within the lines occupied by the Northern troops. Protected by Colonel Prescott from looters and the unwelcome attentions of Surgeon Fielding, Rachel begins to fall in love with the gallant Yankee officer. Their romance is disrupted when Rachel's husband Gordon, long reported dead, is captured as a spy and condemned to death. When Gordon is wounded during an attempted escape, Rachel's loyalty impels her to try to save him by feigning his death. As Gordon's stretcher is carried through the hospital, Fielding demands an examination of the body, charging that Prescott is involved in a plot to smuggle the spy out of the hospital alive. General Stanton lifts the cover from the body, only to find that death has really come, freeing both Rachel and Prescott.

Dir: René Plaissetty

A 'coward' resigns his commission and poses as an Arab to save his former comrades.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Ashoka perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Antoni Bednarczyk

The north-eastern Polish province of Vilnius is after WW1 plundered by savage Bolsheviks. The heroic Polish army is bound to stop them.

Dir: Les Kurbas

Background component for an eponymous stage play, which contrasts the reality of war with that of high society.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Held by the Enemy perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Rex Ingram

An extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.

Dir: Ivane Perestiani

Adventures of three Red Army soldiers - Misha, Dunyasha, and Tom Jackson (an African-American boy) - who fight against Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno and his forces during the Russian Civil War.