The Enemy

Set against the backdrop of an impending Great War, The Enemy is a harrowing domestic drama that strips away the romanticism of the front lines to focus on the rot within the home. Pauli Arndt, the daughter of a staunchly pacifist professor, marries Carl Behrend, the son of a man who views war as a profitable enterprise. When the drums of conflict finally beat, the ideological rift between their families becomes a chasm of survival. Carl is swept into the military machine, leaving Pauli to navigate a world where her father is branded a traitor for his beliefs and the basic necessities of life—food, warmth, and hope—evaporate under the weight of a nationalistic fever. As the Arndt family descends into poverty and social ostracization, the film examines the psychological erosion of those left behind, questioning who the 'enemy' truly is: the soldiers across the border or the systems that demand the sacrifice of the innocent.