Frisians in Peril: A dusty, deeply uncomfortable slice of 1935 history

Look, if you are looking for a fun evening, stay far away from this one. Frisians in Peril (also known as Friesennot) is strictly for the folks who dig deep into dusty, uncomfortable film archives. If you hate heavy-handed, old-school political messaging, you will absolutely loathe this. 😅

The story is set in a tiny Frision village right by the Volga river. These people just want to farm and be left alone, but then the Red Army rolls in. The main bad guy is this commissary named Tschernoff, played by Valéry Inkijinoff with some of the wildest staring eyes I have seen in a long time.

Tschernoff basically takes this half-Russian, half-Frisian girl named Mette as his mistress. The villagers get so mad about this that they literally kick her out into the wet, cold marshes. It is pretty brutal to watch, honestly, and nobody really comes out of that scene looking like a good guy.

I could not help but think of how different this vibe is compared to American movies from the same era, like Sporting Blood. Over there you get lighthearted drama, and here you get grim, muddy misery. 🐎

The Mud and the Fire

The movie gets incredibly dark in the second half. One of the Red soldiers does something terrible to a young local girl, and then the whole plot just explodes into pure chaos. The Frisions decide they have had enough and go absolutely wild on the soldiers with whatever weapons they can grab.

And that ending... wow. They literally set fire to their own houses. They burn everything they own so the enemy can't have it, and then they just march off toward Germany. It feels less like a movie and more like a fever dream of pure anger.

"We burn it all. No peace for them, no home for us."

The camera work is actually pretty decent, especially in the swamp scenes. You can almost smell the rot in those marsh shots. But the propaganda is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. Still, Inkijinoff is magnetic to watch, even if his character is a total monster.

It is definitely not a masterpiece, and it is certainly not comfortable. But as a historical artifact? It is kind of fascinating to see how audiences were being manipulated back then. Just do not expect a happy ending. 😬