Gitte Zehngraff

In 1945 Germany, following the end of World War II, Leopold Kessler, an American of German descent, is hired by his uncle as a sleeping car conductor on the Zentropa train line. Leopold's wish is to be neutral to the ongoing purges of loyalists by Allied forces and do what he can to help a hurting country, but ultimately finds himself being used by both sides.

Starring Reuter Christiansen herself and shot in the lush landscape of Møn, the Danish island where she has lived since 1970, THE EXECUTIONER uses a fragmented narrative to tell “a story of woman’s degradation and exaltation,” as its subtitle indicates. A landmark of Danish feminist art, the film was also Reuter Christiansen’s first major collaboration with Henning, who composed the film’s lyrical, subtly experimental music.

An existential pictorial poem about human life. "Can they stand it? Do they never feel?" (DFI)