Day of Wrath

Stylistically, this deeply moving tale of illicit passion and the persecution of witches in 17th-century Denmark may be Dreyer's most conventional film of the sound era; nevertheless, for the stark beauty of its imagery, its meticulously measured rhythms and its lead performance, it remains one of the great masterpieces of the war years, the more miraculous in having been made during the Nazis' occupation of Denmark. The pervasive atmosphere of fear, superstition, betrayal and cruel oppression is superbly sustained.