Der Postmeister

Der Postmeister (English: The Postmaster or The Stationmaster) is a 1940 Austrian-German film directed by Gustav Ucicky. Released during the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it depicts Russians in a sympathetic light, unlike their depiction in such films as Frisians in Peril before or GPU after. It was very loosely based on The Station Master, an 1831 short story from The Belkin Tales series by Alexander Pushkin. It was remade in 1955 as Dunja. An earlier version was the French film Nostalgie (1938) with Harry Baur, directed by Victor Tourjansky. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Kurt Herlth and Werner Schlichting. It was made in Austria when it was part of Nazi Germany, by the Wien Film company, and distributed by the UFA concern. At the Venice Film Festival, Der Postmeister won the Mussolini Cup for best foreign film. Plot The daughter of a stationmaster falls in love with a cavalry captain. He persuades her to run away with him to St. Petersburg, but she realizes there that he never intended to marry her.