Lilly Jansen

In 1911 the German poet Hugo von Hofmansthal wrote a new version of the medieval morality play Everyman, and this was staged in Danish translation at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1915. At the time, it was radical example of symbolist abstraction. Its success inspired a film version, Enhver [Everyman], directed by Vilhelm Glückstadt for Filmfabrikken Danmark. The film, however, was set in a modern-day environment.

A Danish short about the tragedies of war.

A Savoyard peasant family is banished from their home because they have not paid their taxes on time. When the count sees the family’s beautiful daughter Annette, he immediately suggests that they can stay if Annette comes to the estate as a housemaid. Plainly seeing the count’s disgraceful plans for what they are, the father, Antonio, resolutely rejects the offer. To raise money, Annette, her brother and a friend travel instead to Paris where Annette meets and falls in love.

Margrethe is in love with Worm, who only sees her as a fleeting youthful infatuation. When he suddenly leaves, he abandons both Margrethe and their unborn son. Fate leads them down vastly different paths, and their son Hans grows up and is forced to become a criminal. One day, Worm decides to seek out the woman and child he’d abandoned, and the first meeting between father and son turns out to be quite different from what he’d imagined.