In this episode, we talk about The Mortal Storm (1940), Frank Borzage’s quietly devastating portrait of a German family caught in the first months of Nazi rule. Set in a peaceful Alpine town, the film opens on a birthday celebration and ends in an empty house. It shows how fascism fractures relationships and reorders society from the inside out. What begins as a story of family and love gradually turns into something far more chilling.

We were drawn to how the film portrays a series of believable moments of devastation: a dinner table argument, an old teacher being beaten outside a beer hall, students burning books, and the glance between lovers who now stand on opposite sides. The peer-pressure to join the Nazi Party, the refusal to abandon science and intellect, the future slipping away one quiet decision at a time. The Mortal Storm shows how fascism spreads through fear, conformity, and betrayal.

The film’s emotional power today lies in its ability to capture the pain of watching people you love fall under the spell of ideology. The death near the end of the film is neither heroic nor redemptive. It’s senseless, personal, and deeply sad. It leaves us with the feeling that you can do everything right and still be destroyed by the system around you.

What makes The Mortal Storm feel so urgent today is how familiar its moral landscape has become. The suppression of intellectuals, the war on science, the normalization of cruelty, and the erosion of empathy are no longer distant history—they’re contemporary realities. The film asks us to think about how easily these threats take root and reminds us that fascism is a lurking danger in every democracy.