On this Veterans Day, don’t miss the debut of the moving short film, The Metal Detector, on PBS. The film tells the story of Austrian retiree Georg Reutter, who used a metal detector to uncover the fate of ten American pilots shot down near his home in Graz during World War II. Georg’s determination led him to contact the descendants of the pilots and invite them to his home in Austria to share their fathers’ stories and search for parts of the doomed plane. Watch the exclusive trailer here and read on for an interview with Georg Reutter, the man behind it all.
Q: Were you surprised to learn how all ten of these brave young men survived the crash and capture?
GEORG: Yes I was. But at first I didn’t know, so this was the driving force in me to find out: Did they survive? To begin with, I didn’t even know what plane it was. Were there just two pilots or were there more? “…it was a great relief for me to know that it went well for them.” After a lot of research, I realized there were ten on the plane, and that they all came down. They all were captured. And in the end, they all went back to the United States. It was a great relief for me to know that it went well for them.
Q: When you first began contacting their descendants, did they think it was a prank call from perhaps Arnold Schwarzenneger, given your accent?
GEORG: Absolutely. The whole time. But I got used to that, just telling the story. Actually Arnold Schwarzenegger was born five miles away from my home in Graz where this crash happened.
… (additional interview questions follow)
Don’t miss out on this story of empathy, resilience, and human connection. The Metal Detector airs on November 11 on local PBS stations and will be available for streaming on the PBS app and PBS.org.
About the Author: Gill Pringle began her career as a rock columnist for popular British newspapers and interviews film and TV personalities for prestigious UK outlets. She wrote the screenplay for the 2016 Netflix family film, The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure, and won 1st prize at the NAEJ Awards in 2021. The photo at left shows George Reutter watching a drone. Photo by Emily Topper.
