In the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, Hanne Liebe is a little Jewish girl who lives in a small town on the Dnieper where she is submitted to racial prejudice notably at the Christian-Russian school that she attends.

As the social unrest is increasing, the head of the secret police decides to foment some pogroms to re-direct the people discontent towards the Jews.

Yakov, having learned that his mother is dying travels back to his home town, where Suchowerski and Rylowitsch are busy fomenting hostility against the Jewish population.

It was shot near Berlin, in Groß Lichterfelde Ost [de], where a city consisting of 25 different buildings was built, with a synagogue and an orthodox church and separate Russian and Jewish quarters.

In order to guarantee the authenticity of the film, Dreyer together with the set designer Jens Lind had travelled to Lublin in Poland, where he had visited the Jewish quarter.

[2] In addition, several of the actors were coming from Moscow theaters and for the crowd scenes, actual Jewish refugees from Russia were employed, some of them having personally experienced some fifteen years before events similar to the pogrom described in the film.