Elze Is Gilijos (Elze's Life - Love Was All She Had)

This story takes place in the mid-nineteenth century on a spit of land, which extends along the East Prussian coast known as the ‘Kurische Nehrung’. Contrasting emotions, personalities but also national characteristics form the backdrop for an increasingly irreconcilable conflict between a Prussian fishery supervisor named Grünbaum, for whom order meanseverything, and Jurgeitis, who rebels against the supervisor’s regulations. During a violent argument one day with the Prussian civil servant, an accident occurs. The court, however, interprets this accident as attempted murder and sentences Jurgeitis to many years imprisonment. Jurgeitis’ old friend, a merchant named Mykolas, immediately takes in Jurgeitis’ little daughter Elze….