Siege

Siege

  • 10 Mins
  • 1940
  • en
  • star5.8/ 10

Siege is a 1940 documentary short about the Siege of Warsaw by the Wehrmacht at the start of World War II. It was shot by Julien Bryan, a Pennsylvanian photographer and cameraman who later established the International Film Foundation. Siege was nominated for an Oscar for Best One-reel Short at the 13th Academy Awards in 1941, and in 2006, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as "a unique, horrifying record of the dreadful brutality of war."

Cast & Crew

Review

CinemaSerf

Photo-journalist Julien Bryan narrates his own short feature as he spends a few days in a Warsaw that is under siege from the approaching Nazi war machine. It is almost three weeks since the city started being indiscriminately bombed leaving it’s buildings, hospitals and churches in ruins whilst it’s population risk random strafing from enemy aircraft as they try to gather potatoes from fields on the outskirts of what is left of their homes. Some of the images are frankly quite harrowing, especially towards the conclusion of this film and the sight of a young lad, with all he possesses in a makeshift sack, sitting next to the corpse of his recently mown down mother is a poignant and impactful image amongst many that we see here. It packs quite a punch in just ten minutes.