The Lower Strangling Chronicles
Despite already having a clear-out in February, which turned out to be quite a traumatic experience, the Rev. Simon Abernathy decided to once again sift through the attic at the vicarage, just to make sure it was as clean as it might be.
As the Vicar had already cleared out the wanted junk that was in there, the attic was more spacious than it had been, but there were still plenty of boxes left.
Simon dusted and cleaned the wooden rafters and rather basic carpet until all he needed to do was empty the room and place items of furniture in it for it to become a reasonable spare room; if the Church Commission allowed subletting to take place, that is.
Simon had got the attic looking as clean as it could be when he saw something on the floor; an old film reel.
He picked up the disc and looked at it. It was a reel of a 1945 film called Kolberg.
Simon had never heard of the film before, which only intrigued him more.
“Hmm, this is interesting.” He thought to himself, before bringing the reel out of the attic.
A little while later, he looked up Kolberg on IMDb.
It turned out that Kolberg was a rather elaborate piece of Nazi propaganda about a fictionalised version of the town of Kolberg’s fight against Napoleon, designed to get Germans to rally for the Nazi cause.
So, Simon thought, the reel belonged to the collection of Nazi Memorabilia and had fallen out of the box when he moved it downstairs.
He knew that he’d need to send the reel to the local museum that he’d given the other bits of memorabilia to, but part of him wanted to watch the film, despite the reason it existed. He thought the plot was riveting, and the film itself was visually stunning. Clearly, the Nazis had thrown a lot of what they had on it.
Knowing he had a film projector in the vestry, Simon took the reel to the church in order to treat himself to a private viewing of an old war film.
Simon watched the film in the village hall, where they occasionally held film viewings, as there were comfortable chairs in there, as well as a screen.
The film transfixed him. It was beautifully done, and the acting was superb. It also made him sad, knowing that the Nazis could have had a wonderful career in the film industry had they not chosen the path they did, much like Hitler had a wonderful career in art.
After a while, John entered the village hall.
“Ah, Simon, there you are. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” John said, before noticing the film Simon was watching. “Simon?”
“What?” Simon said as he spun round. “Ah, yes, yes. It’s just a film a found in the attic.”
“You found a film in your attic?” John asked.
“Yes. One last item belonging to that ex Nazi general that the other stuff belonged to.” Simon said.
“Oh.” John said.
“It’s Nazi propaganda, a sort of fake history film.” Simon said. “Sort of like if Liz Truss made a film about the British Empire and made it look like we were doing everyone else a favour by colonising them.”
“Hmm. Interesting.” John said.
“It’s actually good if you look past the fact that most of the people in front of and behind the camera were complicit in the murders of hundereds of thousands of innocent lives in concentration camps and elsewhere.”
“Well, it certainly looks quite impressive.” John said.
“Indeed. I’m sure the decision to make it in colour was quite deliberate.” Simon said. “Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to join us at the pub for happy hour,” John said, “but I can see that you’ve already got your afternoon planned out.”
“Oh no, no. I just thought I’d use the fact that we had an old film projector to my advantage and watch this film that I was quite curious to see.” Simon said. “But I can watch the film later and join you at the pub if you wish.”
“You don’t need to. I just wanted to know if you were interested.” John said. “I could, of course, bring everyone in here, and we can have an impromptu film screening.”
“That might be a nice thing to do, yes.” Simon said. “Just don’t mention the fact that it’s Nazi propaganda partly written and produced by Goebbels.”
“Oh, right? Ok.” John said. He chuckled, then went back to the pub to get the others.
A little while later, the residents of Lower Strangling had filled the village hall, all in awe of the technicolour film in front of them.
“Quite a film, this.” Dave said. “Shame, it’s in German, and there are no subtitles.”
“I know, I know.” Simon said. “But at least we can look at it despite not knowing what anyone is saying.”
“I guess.” Dave said. “Where did you find this film? It seems like quite a niche choice, considering.”
“I found it in the attic.” Simon said. “It was lying on the floor by itself.”
“My, you’ve found a lot of interesting things in there, haven’t you?” Dave said. “First an entire box full of Nazi memorabilia, and now this.”
“Ha, ha, quite.” Simon said before chuckling to himself.
And so the villagers continued to watch the old German Napoleonic war film, with all but two of them unaware of the true reason for its existence.
The Robinsonverse 