Slave Bird (Rabmadár) is a commercial film aiming to entertain and be in line with an industrial process which needed solid financial re-investments. And nonetheless: the movies stile is not just polished but of a high refinement which represents the best of the late silent period. It seemed to be a bad joke of history, that exactly at the moment, when the silent screen reached these artistic heights even in its commercial products that sound appeared. Its devastating victory results in an international loss of more than 90 percent of all films produced till then. In a short survey we will explore, why it will take film culture years to regain the elegance and sovereignty.

Nikolaus Wostry Dr. phil. Nikolaus Wostry, Deputy Director of the Filmarchiv Austria, Head of Collections. Studied history and philosophy at the University of Vienna, research on Austrian Film History with a focus on the silent period.