Die Flucht

[PART 1] With the Nazi troops forced to retreat on the East front in the summer of1944, terminally-ill East Prussian count Berthold von Mahlenberg welcomes to his ancestral castle estate for the first time his granddaughter Victoria 'Vicky', for her sake only curbing his resentment against heiress Lena, who left eight years ago, preferring her bastard over arranged fiance count Heinrich von Gernstorff, whose idealistic brother Ferdinand, now a disillusioned, cynical field officer, her true best friend, is trough with his meddling father Rüdiger and the Third Reich. For lack of a healthy male, Lena starts running the war shortages-affected Mahlenberg estate, dependent on precarious POW and conscripted laborers, using connections maximally, even ultimately agrees to wed Heinrich, but Ferdinand shoots himself at the reception. As the Soviet advance becomes undeniably obvious, Lena and the workers French leader François Beauvais take the farm 'family' in January 1945 on the run to the west, while the count shoots himself and his dog as the vindictive enemy barbarically intrudes and burns the castle, aware all 'deserters' are to be shot, including civilians. —KGF Vissers