The streets are filling with sandbags; though the sirens haven’t started wailing yet, there’s that sharp scent of an approaching storm in the air. As London prepares for the greatest upheaval in its history, ordinary people are setting aside their daily concerns and trying to adjust to a new reality. Directed by Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt, and Pat Jackson, this documentary captures—without fanfare—the quiet preparations unfolding in the city’s kitchens and on its streets. Rather than chronicling official history, the camera focuses on the anxiety on the faces of those waiting for the tram and the frantic hands taping up window panes. The war has not yet reached the city’s doorstep, but its shadow has already stretched to every corner. The flow of life and the tension of the inevitable meet silently within the same frame.