Wednesday Night Cinema: H. Schwarz – The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrowna (1929)

“Metropolis” star Brigitte Helm as Nina, caught between luxury, passion and forbidden love. The film will be accompanied live by Sorin Creciun.

Brigitte Helm und Warwick Ward – Brigitte Helm und Warwick Ward

Young Nina Petrovna is the mistress of a rich and powerful Cossack colonel. Yet life in luxury has long since ceased to make Nina happy. When she meets the penniless officer Michael Andreyevich and falls instantly in love with him, she decides to give up her life of luxury for him. However, the Cossack colonel is not prepared to let Nina go so easily. What’s more, life in poverty plunges the young couple into great difficulties.

The leading lady, Brigitte Helm, first appeared on screen in 1925 – without any formal acting training whatsoever. She made her breakthrough in 1927 with Fritz Lang’s silent film epic METROPOLIS. The role immediately earned her a ten-year contract with Ufa, which systematically built her up as a star. A few years later, she was typecast as the cold, seductive vamp, a role she repeatedly tried to escape.

Directed by Hanns Schwarz, Germany 1929, 117 minutes, starring Brigitte Helm, Franz Lederer, Warwick Ward, Lya Jan, Harry Hardt, Ekkehard Arendt, Michael von Newlinski, Franz Schafheitlin
A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden.
At the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ: Sorin Creciun

The MightyWurlitzer theatre organ at the Musical Instrument Museum is one of the largest surviving instruments of its kind in Europe. In 1929, Werner Ferdinand von Siemens, the grandson of the company’s founder, acquired it from the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda, NY. It has four manuals, 1,228 pipes and more than 200 stops. In addition, there is a large number of percussion and effect instruments. Thunderclaps and birdsong, wailing sirens and the ringing of bells – the Mighty Wurlitzer’s range of sounds is truly impressive.

Find out more about the MIM’s Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ here.

Price info: Book tickets on 030 254 811 78 or at

Price: €10.00

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 13/January/2027 18:00 bis 20:30
• Venue Musikinstrumentenmuseum - Ben-Gurion-Straße
• Address Ben-Gurion-Straße, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten