Der Fangschuß / Coup de Grâce

Set in Latvia during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922) and World War I, Coup de Grâce offers a devastating critique of the impact of war and masculinity on sexuality, femininity, and personal politics. After Erich, a German soldier, rejects her romantic advances, Sophie expresses her grief through promiscuity and aligning with the Bolsheviks. Erich's embrace of militarism, partly to hide his sexuality, leads him to coldly execute Sophie as a political dissident. The film was adapted from the 1939 novel of the same title by the French author Marguerite Yourcenar