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Originally In Jenen Tagen, In Those Days was the first postwar directorial contribution by Germany's Helmut Kautner. The film is an episodic recollection of life under the Third Reich, told from the viewpoint of an automobile. Kautner introduces the audience to the car's various owners, each of whom is in one way or another a victim of Nazism. The most poignant vignette concerns a businessman whose life and career are destroyed by the Nazi persecutors of his Jewish wife. Because of a shortage of studio space, most of In Jenen Tagen was lensed out-of-doors, adding a realistic, documentary-like veneer to the proceedings. Though held in low esteem by American film critics, In Jenen Tagen was deemed worthy enough to be entered into the 2nd International Film Festival at Locarno; the film was later released in the U.S. as Seven Journeys.