''Covered Tracks'' () is a 1938 German

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Veit Harlan Veit Harlan (22 September 1899 – 13 April 1964) was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the high point of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film '' Jud Süß'' (1940) makes him controversial. W ...

and starring

Kristina Söderbaum Beata Margareta Kristina Söderbaum (5 September 1912 – 12 February 2001) was a Swedish-born German film actress, producer, and photographer. She performed in Nazi-era films made by a German state-controlled production company. Early life S� ...

, Philip Dorn, and Charlotte Schultz. It was shot at the EFA Studios in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

's Halensee and the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Firs ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

with

location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. When filmmaking professionals refer to shooting "on location", they are ...

taking place in both cities as well as in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

s Karl Haacker and Hermann Warm. It premiered at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

.Schiweck & Toonen p.144

Plot summary

A young woman named Séraphine checks her ailing mother into a Parisian

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, having arrived to attend the 1867 International Exposition. When she comes back to the hotel with her mother's medication, she finds her room vacant and none of the staff remembers ever seeing her or her mother checking into the hotel. Séraphine then embarks on a quest to uncover the mystery of her mother's disappearance and prove her own sanity.

Cast

References

Bibliography

* * Noack, Frank. ''Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker''. University Press of Kentucky, 2016. * Schiweck, Ingo & Toonen, Hans. ''Maharadscha, Tschetnik, Kriegsheimkehrer: der Schauspieler Frits van Dongen oder Philip Dorn''. Der Andere Verlag, 2003.

External links

* 1938 films Films of Nazi Germany 1930s historical drama films German historical drama films 1930s German-language films Films directed by Veit Harlan Films about missing people Films set in 1867 Films set in Paris Films based on urban legends Films with screenplays by Thea von Harbou German black-and-white films Tobis Film films 1938 drama films 1930s German films Films shot at Bavaria Studios Films shot at Halensee Studios Films shot in Paris Films scored by Hans-Otto Borgmann German-language historical drama films {{1930s-Germany-film-stub

Plot summary

Cast

See also

References

Bibliography

External links