Out of the Frying Pan — A Film by Samuel James Robles

The Story

He could have
gone home.
He chose Berlin.

Poland, 1945. What's left of the Greater Germanic Reich.

Three barrels tumble off a horse-drawn carriage. An American paratrooper and two other POWs hit the ground running for the treeline. Shots crack across the snow. By the time Joe Beyrle reaches the forest, he is alone.

What follows is a few impossible days. Joe crosses an icy river, wanders a frozen wasteland loud with distant artillery, and begs at a farmhouse door — only to be turned away by Germans more afraid of the SS than of the advancing Red Army.

Then the Soviets arrive. Starving and ragged, with nothing to his name but a rosary and a half-empty pack of cigarettes, Joe walks out of a barn with his hands up, the pack held high, and offers the only two words of Russian he knows: "Americanski Tovarisch." American comrade.

It works.

Why This Film, Now

The war you know,
the man you don't.

This summer, Hollywood tells two more WWII stories — a studio film about the leadup to Operation Overlord, and an action thriller about a soldier trapped behind enemy lines. We're telling the stranger, truer one: the GI who clawed out of a Nazi POW camp — and the Gestapo's hands — then turned down a ride home, choosing instead to keep fighting alongside a Soviet tank battalion bound for Berlin.

Period black-and-white photograph of three farmhands in a field.

REFERENCE · POLISH COUNTRYSIDE, 1945

The Real Joe Beyrle

Joe Beyrle is the only soldier known to have volunteered for both the American and Soviet armies during the Second World War. Captured in Normandy, he escaped a POW camp and talked his way into the First Guards Tank Army.

Their commander was Major Aleksandra Samusenko — a real woman, and the highest-ranking female tank officer of the war. Over a campfire and a bottle of vodka, her battalion adopted the strange American who would rather fight than go home.

"To fallen comrades, to our families, and most importantly… to Berlin."

The Cast

Real people.
Real history.

Every figure in this film walked the earth. We've cast it to honor them.

Joe Beyrle

The only soldier to fight for both armies

Captured at Normandy, he escaped a POW camp and talked his way into the Red Army with a pack of cigarettes and two words of Russian.

Aleksandra Samusenko

Tank battalion commander

The highest-ranking female tank officer of the war. She raised her cup to "fallen comrades, our families, and most importantly… Berlin."

The Look & Feel

A war film with a
dark sense of humor.

Stark black-and-white photography broken by the cold green of the Polish pines. Wide, patient frames. A face lit by firelight. Underneath the dread, there is warmth — soldiers asking Joe if he knows John Wayne, a starving man eating hay like popcorn, a toast that turns a barn into the safest place on earth for one night. War is terrible. People are funny. Both are true at once. That's the film.

Join the Battalion

To Berlin.

Joe Beyrle traded a pack of cigarettes for a place in history. We're asking for something just as small that can do something just as big: back this film — and share it.

The graduate thesis film for the Master of Screen & Film Production at BIMM Berlin — location locked, cast confirming, cameras rolling this July. We've put our own money in first; help us close the gap to production.

Sam is the son of a retired U.S. Naval officer, and grew up with a deep respect for those who serve. That's what drew him to Joe — a man who reached safety and chose to keep fighting. Telling his story right is its own act of honor.

$11.5K

Funding Goal

10–15

Minute Short

JULY

Shoots in Germany

Back us on Kickstarter

He could havegone home.He chose Berlin.

The war you know,the man you don't.

Real people.Real history.