Helmut Käutner • Germany • 1961 • A gripping Cold War thriller.

In this gripping Cold War noir, tensions simmer between residents of a small German village and the soldiers of a U.S. military base. Postwar economic hardship has transformed the town of Sohnen into a vice district where women serve as entertainment for the GIs, while the men struggle for survival in the black market.

Recalling such white-knuckle thrillers as The Wages of Fear and Thieves’ Highway, Helmut Käutner’s Black Gravel was initially criticized for its honest depiction of lingering antisemitism in Germany. Restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.