1941年第二次世界大战肆虐时期，德国纳粹入侵苏联。在经历长达4个月的攻坚战无果后，希特勒决定用饥饿和围困的方式夺取列宁格勒。纳粹围城三年，尸横遍野的列宁格勒成为一座死亡之城。
英国女记者凯特·戴维斯（米拉·索维诺 Mira Sorvino 饰）在前线采访时，与她的爱人美国记者菲利普·帕克（加布里埃尔·伯恩 Gabriel Byrne 饰）失散，被困列宁格勒。孤立无援的凯特幸得列宁格勒义勇军女警妮娜（欧嘉·苏图洛娃 Olga Sutulova 饰）的帮助与庇护。两人坚守在冰天雪地的战火之中，与饱受饥饿折磨的苏联军民一起，为生存而战
达瑞斯（塞缪尔·杰克逊 Samuel L. Jackson 饰）曾是一名令业内人士闻风丧胆的超级杀手，如今已经缉拿归案的他屈居在铁窗之后，等待着漫长的刑期到头。达瑞斯的妻子索尼娅（萨尔玛·海耶克 Salma Hayek 饰）同样身陷囹圄，某日，达瑞斯得到了一个意外的机会，能 够令索尼娅重获自由，作为交换，他必须出庭作证证明邪恶的罪犯弗拉迪斯拉夫（加里·奥德曼 Gary Oldman 饰）有罪。
“Sangen Om Den Eldröda Blomman” ( “Song Of The Scarlet Flower” ) was a recent and remarkable silent surprise for this Herr Von; the oeuvre is an excellent Herr Stiller silent film that this German count watched in a newly restored and tinted copy. It combines the well-known aesthetics, technical improvements and artistic merits for which the Nordic director was known and praised since those early silent times till today. The film tells of the merry and carefree love life of young Olof ( Herr Lars Hanson ) a woodsman who during his search for true love, seduces many frauleins ( just like this German aristocrat… well, not exactly because the purpose of this Herr Von’s seduction of rich fräulein heiresses are their great fortunes… ). He will suffer disappointment and deception, all those problems that turn up in any loving relationship. Finally he will find responsibility and maturity, learning during his particular quest that his actions always have consequences in different degrees to the people around him. This Herr Von can describe “Sangen Om…” as a kind of coming of age film, the special introspective growth toward maturity of a free and easy youngster. As this German count said before, the film displays Stiller’s characteristic artistic virtues. ; in the first part of the film, we can see elements of comedy, not exactly like the comedy of intrigues in other Stiller films, but humor of a more cheerful sort, highlighting the self-involvement of our hero. Olof ‘s frivolous flirtations with the different girls eventually turn romantic and then turn into drama. There is conflict in the troubled relationship between Olof and his father and later with the father of his beloved. The beautiful and wild natural landscapes of Norrland and northern Sweden lend the tale a certain power and is characteristic of Herr Stiller’s other silents where Nature emerges as an important character in the story. This is strongly reflected throughout the film but especially during the frantic scene wherein Olof descends into the troubled waters of a river, a beautiful metaphor for the hardships that our hero has to endure until he finds himself. “Sangen Om Den Eldröda Blomman” is an excellent, beautiful film, a solid, technically perfect and intricate production of 1919 that demonstrates once again the importance of Herr Stiller for silent film history.
