Paula Pfluger

Approximately half a million vagabonds were roaming Austria and Germany in the late 1920s. The film addresses their social exclusion and depicts the harsh reality of living on the fringes of society.

The story staged, then, is that of young Andreas Harmer (played by Oskar Marion), at first unemployed and then, thanks to the help of his sister, who works as a nanny at the home of councillor Othmar Valentin (Arthur von Duniecki), a police apprentice. The man soon finds himself having to deal with a couple of forgers (Attila Hörbiger and Kurt Doehn), who live in the basement of Valentin’s building and who, uneasy because of the presence of a policeman who frequently visits the house, will do anything to drive the man away, even organising the kidnapping of Valentin’s little daughter.