Herrenpartie (1964)

A German men's choral society travels by bus to the popular holiday destination of Yugoslavia. When they run out of petrol, they reach a remote village inhabited exclusively by women. The women give them neither petrol nor water to relieve the heat. Their search for petrol and water comes to a halt in a gorge, because the Wehrmacht blew up the bridge that could have saved them during the war. But the German men's choir is made of tough stuff. Singing old soldiers' songs, they settle into the village's abandoned guesthouse. By putting up a notice from the period of the German occupation, the women explain their enduring hatred of the German petty bourgeoisie. The order reveals that all the village's male residents were shot in a reprisal during the Second World War. The situation escalates when the men “requisition” and slaughter a sheep. In response, at the urging of their spokeswoman, Miroslava, the women push the Germans' bus into a gorge. Miroslava also tries to kill the Germans with an explosion as they attempt to make their way to the next village. She abandons the plan because it would endanger a village girl who has run after the Germans. In this tense situation, as in earlier scenes, the men's entanglement in the machinations of the Third Reich and their present-day dependencies come to light. Only the young Herbert, who, along with the group's journalist, is the only one without a Nazi past, can understand the suffering of the village women. After the men get lost in the mountains, the women rescue them. Miroslava, who disapproves of the rescue, then intends to shoot the men when they return, but refrains at the last moment. In the final scenes, the Yugoslav police and a replacement bus have arrived, and Miroslava prepares to be arrested for destroying the tour bus that rolled into the gorge. But the journalist blackmails his fellow travelers over their Nazi past, which has since come to light, and the Germans explain the loss of the bus as their own fault.