Das Urteil (1997) - full transcript
The Jewish antiques dealer Siegfried Rabinovicz is on his way from New York to Hamburg where he is about to testify in a murder case. An airport hostess talks him into giving up his seat to another passenger who seem to know too much.
THE JUDGMENT
SCREENPLAY
PAUL HENGGE
MUSIC
ROBERT SCHULTE HEMMING
JENS LANGBEIN
PRODUCTION DESIGN
CHRISTIAN BUSSMANN
EDITOR
INGE BEHRENS
CINEMATOGRAPHER
RAINER KLAUSMANN
DIRECTED BY
OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL
He's coming.
Mr. Rabinovicz?
Excuse me, Sir.
I have an important
message for you.
- For me?
- A passenger is urgently asking you
to take the later
flight to Hamburg.
- Please.
- Why should I?
This envelope contains
a first-class ticket
with a firm booking for
the next flight at 9:00 a.m.
As a first-class passenger
you can of course
pass the time comfortably
in the VIP lounge.
If you choose to
take the later flight,
the book is yours.
[IN HEBREW]:
Sefer haggadah shel pesaḥ.
Agreed, Sir?
Sir?
Mmm-hmm. Yeah, okay. Thanks.
Sir?
[IN ENGLISH]:
Your boarding card, please.
[IN ENGLISH]: Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is Rabinovicz.
Too late, Sir, unfortunately.
- The plane's leaving already.
- My name is Rabinovicz.
I gave up my seat to Hamburg
to another passenger.
Can you please
give me his name?
- I'm sorry, Sir.
- Why not?
On your passenger list
there must be
a different name instead
of Rabinovicz now.
Firstly, I'm not allowed to give you
any information about the passengers,
secondly, it wasn't necessary
to give up your seat to someone.
The flight to Hamburg
is barely half full.
An employee from Avia Service was
waiting for me here and asked me to.
Avia Service?
She had a cap on
that said "Avia Service".
I'm not aware of it, Sir.
There's no Avia Service
in our transit area here.
[PA]: Please keep an eye
on your luggage.
[PA]: Never leave it unattended.
[PA]: Should
unauthorized persons--
No one touched your bag.
I was keeping an eye on it.
I need the number for
Avia Service. Can you help me?
- Avia?
- Service.
It's not listed.
That can't be.
I got my ticket through
this Avia Service.
This ticket was issued
by American Express.
Yesterday. The buyer paid cash.
Then American Express
must know.
[IN FRENCH]: Jacqueline?
It's me, Carole.
[IN FRENCH]: Do you know if you are
working with an Avia Service there?
[IN FRENCH]: No?
[IN FRENCH]:
Exactly, neither have I.
[IN FRENCH]: All right.
Thanks. Kiss kiss.
Avia Service isn't known
to American Express either.
Tomorrow at
6:00 a.m. at the latest
the information desk in
the concourse is open again.
Perhaps they can
help you further.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
- Excuse me.
- Hmm?
How can one get
something to drink here?
By taking what
you want to have.
Where do I pay?
Don't start any
new customs here!
At these prices you shouldn't
give the airline the idea
that they can even
charge for drinks as well.
Is it that expensive?
Don't you remember
what you paid?
Then I'll treat myself, eh?
I wouldn't buy a first-class ticket
with my own money, though.
Jakob Brandeis publishing house.
Prague and Wrocław. 1900. Bilingual.
Right?
The Haggadah that
you're holding, I mean.
What's it to you?
Name me a price. I'll give you
whatever you want for it.
I'm not selling.
Not even for a
whole lot of money?
I'm not letting go of it again
for anything in the world.
- May I?
- How dare you?!
I'm not letting you
take it away from me again!
No one's trying to take
anything away from you.
I wanted to look at it.
Thank you for the friendliness.
Are you in the book business?
Are you searching for something
to talk about because you're bored?
Or do you want to
discuss my offer?
I've been looking for it
for 45 years.
I'm happy to have it.
At least tell me
where you found it.
It was given to me
in exchange for giving up my
seat on the flight to Hamburg.
I also got a first-class ticket
for the next flight.
Okay. You don't have to tell me.
It's the truth.
I just don't understand it.
The flight to Hamburg
was half empty.
He could've had
plenty of seats.
How do you account for that?
I don't have a clue.
A young lady, her cap
read "Avia Service",
handed me the Haggadah
and the ticket.
But no one here in the airport
knows anything about an Avia Service.
No Avia Service
in the phone book.
I don't understand it.
Someone wanted you
to take a later flight.
But why?
Will you miss an appointment
if you arrive late in Hamburg?
No.
Well, what I don't understand is
why didn't you ask the lady?
I wasn't thinking.
I was so stunned.
It was like a dream.
Suddenly I'm holding
the Haggadah in my hands.
I've been looking for it for decades.
Twice a year I've put ads in the paper.
I've written letters. Hundreds.
Suddenly I'm
holding it in my hands.
So it must have been someone who knew
that you're looking for this book.
If he knows I'm looking for it,
he would've also known for how long.
So why's he giving it away?
And a first-class seat along with it.
One of your friends probably wanted
to surprise you with this gift.
None of my friends could
let go of this much money.
The dealers who know,
they would keep me
on tenterhooks for weeks
before taking me to the
cleaners for the Haggadah.
There must be
decent people as well.
No one could've known that I'd be on my
way from here to Hamburg this very day.
But it must be
someone who knew
that you'd be traveling from
New York to Hamburg today.
And he also knows that
you've been looking for this Haggadah.
If, as you say, no one benefits
from you arriving late in Hamburg,
then there's only
one possibility.
He wanted--
...or she...
wanted you to remain here
for a few hours.
So all you have to do is sit here
and wait for what will happen.
That's easy for you to say.
Who's going to guarantee that
no one's going to come up and shoot me?
Does anyone have a reason?
There are plenty of
nutjobs in the world
who don't need a special reason
for something like that.
But surely nutjobs don't
announce their assassination
with the great gong
of a noble gift.
Why didn't I ask her?!
I should have said, "Sure,
but I need to know who's behind it
and what he wants from me."
That would've
been easiest, yes.
Do you think
I should inform the police?
You'd have to expect that the Haggadah
would be confiscated as evidence.
That's out of the question.
A difficult decision.
If you tell the police,
you risk losing the Haggadah again,
if you don't, you may
be risking your life.
You have a nice way of
bolstering someone's courage.
If someone is giving me the Haggadah
because he wants to kill me,
he won't deny
himself his pleasure
simply because I've given
the book to the police.
Or are you now going to tell me that
my life will no longer be in danger
once I have sold
the Haggadah to you?
A friend of mine would be
very happy to have this Haggadah.
Maybe you'll also tell me that
it could be an attack by terrorists.
A letter bomb that's
hidden in the Haggadah.
Then you'll probably say
that you'll sacrifice yourself
and take the book to the
police for me. Then it's gone.
How can someone
be so distrustful?
If you weren't distrustful too,
then you wouldn't keep your money
in a pouch on your chest.
[IN FRENCH]: À la bonne heure.
When you deal with people
day after day who--
who want to pick up
expensive pieces
in the antique bookstore
for little money,
then you learn to recognize whether
someone has a little money or a lot,
and where they're hiding it.
You work in an
antique bookstore?
Lower East Side.
East 4th Street.
Not a fancy area, but the
collectors come because they think
people in the area don't have a clue
about how much books can be worth.
You're antique book dealer and
couldn't get this Haggadah yourself?
I tried everything.
I even learned the
modern Hebrew script
because I wanted to
correspond with families
who came from Germany.
I found some who have it.
But they didn't
want to let go of it,
because it was the
only reminder of people
who never returned.
And then it's suddenly
gifted to you.
That's odd indeed.
Now he's starting up
with it again.
You do want something.
What would I want?
Like someone walking around the store
knows exactly where it is, the metsie,
but he doesn't look at it,
he walks around, talks and talks,
to make you sluggish and tired.
When it's time, then he goes for it
and offer two or three dollars.
You're happy that you've
made a small deal after all.
By the time you realize what
he took, he's long gone.
If I'm right about you,
that's never happened to you.
But to others often enough.
My father had it.
This edition. This exact one.
It was holy to him.
His father had it before he did.
It looked just like this.
It may even be the same one.
He showed me the writing,
and after my seventh birthday he
let me read with him on Seder evening
how the Holy Spirit, praised be He,
delivered his people from Mizraim and
led them through the
Red Sea to freedom.
"He will do it again this time,"
my father said,
and kissed the Haggadah
in which all that is written.
That was in Theresienstadt.
There was never a more
beautiful Passover after that.
You're Jewish.
Born in Germany?
In Leipzig.
The Nuremberg Laws
were just one year old.
You too?
"Believing in God"
they called it back then.
My father left the church
because he believed
he owed it to his Führer.
Your friend for whom you'd
like to have the Haggadah...?
He's Jewish.
Why is he looking for it?
He...had to give away his own.
He did it voluntarily because
he wanted to help a friend with it.
I couldn't do it.
You live in New York?
Manhattan.
I couldn't go back--
I couldn't live
in the countryside.
I understand that.
As an antique book dealer, how would
you get books there? And customers?
Even in the big city there aren't
a whole lot of customers.
Everyone wants to discover something
special and pay nothing for it.
The worst are the collectors
who aren't looking for a book,
but rather an object of value.
And they probably
have the most money.
Is your father still alive?
No. He would be 95 now.
Has he been dead long already?
For ten years.
He was granted a long life.
When a person's lying there
like that and no longer breathing,
then it still hurts
despite everything.
Do you have children?
Mmm-mmm.
Maybe if a woman had been there
who would've bolstered
one's courage again.
MURDER ON LUXURY LINER
Look at this.
All the papers are full of it.
In the States too?
We have enough murders
of our own in America.
Our media are rarely reliant on horror
stories imported from other countries.
At the end of a
Mediterranean cruise,
a British billionaire
was stabbed to death
on a German ship as it was
entering the Port of Hamburg.
A German publisher is believed
to have committed the murder.
The trial begins
the day after tomorrow.
I read about it.
Uh, yeah?
What do you think about it?
He's probably guilty.
How do you figure that?
The way the newspapers present it,
it must have been him.
There are also some who
vehemently defend the accused.
I believe he did it,
and I believe he will confess yet.
Mmm-mmm.
He didn't do it.
No?
They walked him off the ship.
In handcuffs. He--
He looked...
desperate.
He looked back
at the ship like someone
who is only slowly realizing
what has happened, and--
and would like to undo it.
I felt sorry for him, and...
he probably killed
a person, but...
I felt sorry for him.
There's no plausible motive.
But imagine:
He worked his whole life
then someone else gets into competition
with him just on impulse, out of spite.
He becomes a
poor man overnight,
and the one who made him that way
has become even richer from it.
Isn't that a motive?
He wanted to start over again.
At 70?
Why would someone
who no longer has any money
go on an expensive cruise
for which he'll have to get into debt?
Where is he supposed to get
the energy for a new start?
He had to take a vacation.
No! It was an investment!
A last-ditch rescue effort.
He wanted to make peace
with Hamilton on this cruise
so that the banks would
grant him loans again.
He didn't agree to it.
Everything was in vain,
and Wolf didn't know where
he was supposed to get the money
to live and pay his new debts.
So he snapped and killed him.
That's incorrect.
Completely incorrect.
It can't have gone that way.
I'm not saying that
he went on the cruise
because he wanted
to kill the man.
Just, the way he looked,
everything is futile.
He is not someone
who acts hastily,
but rather is always
calm and collected.
Everyone says and writes that.
He has no temperament at all?
To the contrary.
They say he is very
energetic and decisive.
And controlled.
"Controlled"?
He has always
controlled his temper.
It's only gotten
the better of him once.
Listening to you,
one might believe
the judges had already
rendered judgment.
But he's lucky that you're
not his defense attorney.
Because you twist everything so that
it sounds like he did it deliberately,
with intent from the start.
You're not listening.
I said he didn't do it.
But if you're wrong
and he did it after all,
then according to your theory
one would have to say
that he planned and carried out
everything with full intent.
But it's no use to him
that Hamilton's dead.
That doesn't clear up his debts
and it's harder than ever
to get a loan now.
He knew that.
That's probably what
made him so desperate.
Hamilton didn't
want to help him.
He would've had to disembark without
a cent, with a mountain of debts,
and without knowing
what he will live on now.
He has friends
who would've helped him.
They would've had
to do that earlier,
to tell him early enough:
"You are not alone. We will help you.“
He wouldn't have had to be so
desperate if it had been like that.
After the fact it's easy to say:
"Why didn't you tell me?"
You have friends
as long as you're doing well.
But when the seven years
of famine have begun,
you're mostly alone
on Shabbos.
You must know everything, hmm?
No one can tell you anything
that you don't know better.
Aren't we similar in that way?
Wolf would not have been
dependent on Hamilton.
They would grant him loans?
Oh, sure.
- He would also have money to live?
- No question.
Then he has already
paid back his debts?
How is he supposed
to earn money
when he's been sitting
in custody since his return?
Are you sure that
somewhere along the line
you didn't have someone
among your ancestors
who would have the
candles lit on Shabbat?
I'm not aware of anything like that.
But it wouldn't bother me.
Because you reason like
Shlomo the painter.
He was supposed to paint
Jacob Blue's garden fence green,
but he only had yellow paint.
So he used that and
said to Jacob Blue:
"Blue and yellow
make green anyway!"
You came up with that just now.
Is the joke that bad?
Ahh, that was a joke.
Fine. Let's fight about my
bad joke. I prefer that.
Maybe you'll get less
agitated about that.
That could be my
plane to Hamburg.
Yeah, it's possible.
I would be sitting
comfortably in it,
and wouldn't have to be quibbling
with you about a murder
that has nothing to do
with either of us.
If it explodes now,
then we'll know that the
unknown donor means well by you.
That's a better joke?
What would you have wanted to be
if Hitler hadn't existed?
A happy person who doesn't
grumble about everything.
Someone people like.
I mean professionally.
Is there any use
in thinking about that?
You probably never
get rid of the fear entirely.
I don't have any fear.
It's hard to imagine what goes on inside
a person who had to experience all that.
I know. No one wants
to talk about that.
And who wants to listen, huh?
Many are curious.
That's for sure.
But what's down at the bottom,
everything you don't know yourself
until you've said it...
No one wants to wait for that.
Excuse me.
Are you Nathan Spellman?
No.
Forgive me.
What does he want?
He's looking for a
Mr. Spellman.
You didn't see that.
From behind, his eyes,
the way he was looking at me.
And he photographed
me from there.
I came in and
he photographed me!
He probably first thought
you were Mr. Spellman.
Because someone's named Spellman,
he has to be photographed?
But if someone's named Rabinovicz,
he has to be killed?
I didn't tell you my name.
I don't know about
Rabinovicz, but
some have wanted to
kill me because of the "S".
Really?
Guess what it stands for.
- Salomon.
- No.
Samuel.
That's what's on my
passport now, but
my old dad had something
completely different
entered in the baptismal
register in Leipzig.
You have to understand,
he was so proud of his Germany.
In the first war he was promoted
to junior NCO for bravery.
Wagner.
After his God, that
was the highest for him.
So he named his
only son Siegfried.
Siegfried Rabinovicz.
Can you imagine all the things
that came into SS soldiers' heads
when they had a Jew named
Siegfried in front of them?
- You were born in 19--
- '36.
Hitler had already been in
power for three years then.
That didn't bother my dad.
"One day", I'm told he
always used to say,
"one day this Germany
will shake itself
and the brown vermin
will fly out of it
like fleas
out of a dog's fur."
Mmm.
His brother told me that.
The only one who returned.
And your father?
My uncle already emigrated
to Australia in the summer of '33.
My father really held it
against him, the old fool.
"You can't abandon your country
when criminals have
geared themselves up in it."
But...
my uncle survived,
many criminals too,
my father didn't.
What's the use in talking about what
hurts and will always hurt, for nothing?
If it doesn't change
anything in this world.
If no one knows what happened, then it
has even less chance of getting better.
People don't listen to the victims
and they don't listen to the guilty,
not to the victims
who have become guilty,
and not to the guilty who were
sometimes only victims themselves.
A person is sitting
there in a cell
and would probably like
to talk about his guilt,
would like to find someone
to help him to bear it.
But, if he still has friends,
then they will only demand
from him that he is innocent.
The others expect a confession
from him so that they can judge him
or proof of his innocence,
because they don't want
the hunt for a sensation to already
be over with his conviction.
You're firmly convinced
that he did it?
It couldn't have been
anyone else.
But Hamilton's wife has been having a
relationship with another man for years.
What does that concern us?
Her lover was also on the ship.
Don't you know that?
I read all that too.
Hamilton didn't have any reason
to object to that relationship.
It suited him. He'd had a
different orientation for a long time.
So why should they
have killed him?
Because they wanted to finally
be free and live together.
She could've asked for a divorce.
Did she try that?
Naturally she didn't
want to give up the fortune,
so they decided to
do away with him.
If you can also prove that,
it would interest the jury very much.
We have lay judges and
professional judges in Germany, no jury.
And they're not
interested in evidence?
Or don't you have any?
Are you just repeating
what's written in this rag?
Why "rag"?
Just because the paper has
a different opinion than you?
You like this style?
The witnesses are senile, dishonest,
deal carelessly with the truth...
Reading that can
make a person sick.
And what the other
papers are writing
that already pronounced the accused
guilty before he had even been charged,
that doesn't make you sick?
It could be that
that's not correct either.
But according to the witness
statements he's guilty,
and witnesses only say
what they've seen and heard.
What they believe
to have seen and heard,
and what they want to remember.
Everything was
investigated by the police
and checked by
the state attorney.
Now the judges have it.
Wait for the judgment.
No one looks any further when they have
someone who's sufficiently suspicious.
Then they only gather what can be
used as evidence against the accused.
Who else is supposed
to have done it?
Her lover!
Wolf argued with Hamilton
several times on the ship.
His wife and her lover were
thereby able to twist it
so that the suspicion
had to fall on Wolf.
They didn't pass up
this opportunity.
But it can't have
gone that way.
There's no way
you could know that.
Maybe better than you.
Uh-- Why?
Because--
Because I've read at least
as much about it just as you have.
Including this?
"A pitiless witness".
The man who wrote this
seems to be a clairvoyant.
Anyone with a different opinion
than yours is dismissed.
Sooner or later he'll confess.
He has nothing to confess.
But unless a miracle helps him,
he will be wrongly imprisoned
for years until it emerges
that Hamilton was stabbed
to death by his wife's lover.
At least read this one article.
For a few minutes, allow another
opinion to be valid and consider it.
It's tacky to suspect
two people of murder
because they are in a
relationship together.
That's the way of
dealing with people.
Nothing's changed, probably.
It remains that he who stinks lies,
and he who lies steals as well.
You believe I think that way?
No, no, not you.
People like these trash journalists.
They don't write these things
to inform their readers,
they want to lure in buyers.
Any nasty trick will suit them
as long as it it leads to
better sales for their newspaper.
I wonder if you would
argue the same way
if the accused weren't a German,
but rather an Englishman,
and her lover weren't an American,
but rather a German.
I didn't know that
he's an American.
Not even that?
You don't know anything,
yet you've rendered a judgment.
You're not willing to give the accused
even the slighted chance.
I don't understand why
you're getting so excited.
The whole thing has nothing
to do with either of us.
A person is sitting in prison
and, unless a miracle happens, will be
convicted, even though he's innocent.
You think that has
nothing to do with us?
Someone else is
profiting from it.
He went in, stabbed a person
to death in cold blood,
and will walk away free.
That has nothing to do with us?
He takes one man's life by force
and steals it from another.
But that has nothing
to do with us?
I thought you only
read those things in books.
The fact that there's really
a person who thinks that way
when it's about people
he doesn't know...
It does good to know that.
It's just a shame that you're
getting worked up about the wrong man.
The accused is guilty,
believe me.
If Wolf is convicted,
it won't bring any of the people you're
actually thinking about back to life.
I'm not thinking about that.
I didn't think about
that for one second.
You don't think about
anything else. Only that!
Otherwise you
wouldn't talk this way.
I talk this way because I was there.
I was on the ship!
Here.
The man this trash journalist considers
to be a questionable witness, that's me!
I was there.
I saw him.
In the paper there's only something
about a witness named S. R.
I couldn't have known that--
that that's you!
You should have told me.
I saw them in the hallway.
The women who gave me
the Haggadah and the ticket
and the man who
photographed me.
And?
They ran away.
- Do you want the police after all?
- What would they say?
It's not a crime to
give a gift to someone.
I didn't have to
take the gift, or--
could've asked
where it came from.
She's not wearing the cap with "Avia
Service" on it anymore, by the way.
You're worried.
Wouldn't you be?
Should there be ill intent
connected with this gift,
then it will be carried out
while you're waiting here
or on the flight that
was booked for you.
That's a big help.
Give me your ticket.
I'll change bookings.
For us both.
Then you won't be alone here.
And no one will know which connection
you're taking or when you're arriving.
I can't ask you to do that.
It'll cost more, too.
Don't worry about it.
It's all good. We're flying
to Frankfurt at 8:30
and from there you have
a connection to Hamburg.
I'm kicking myself for getting
you involved in the matter at all,
but I am very grateful to you.
Maybe you really are
dealing with a crazy person.
Maybe you could be
a politician, too.
First you say one thing,
then later the exact opposite,
but it always
sounds so convincing.
Such is life.
It's not for nothing
that the Bible says,
"God hath spoken once,
twice have I heard this".
I didn't say anything about God.
I imagine Him to be quite different.
I was just quoting a psalm.
You probably don't like
to talk about yourself either.
Only if I absolutely can't
think of anything better.
I've never experienced
that before in my life.
Any time it looks as though
there might be a mazel for me,
it always means that a schlimazel
will follow right behind it.
It has always been that way.
My entire life.
Enviable.
You're making fun of me?
No, not at all.
You can be happy
about every misfortune,
because fortune would only
bring you more misfortune.
But listen to this.
Do you know how
I got on that cruise?
There was a
puzzle-solving competition.
Five washing machines were going
to be given away as runner-up prizes.
"With mazel," I thought,
"I could win one of them."
"Mine has just about died."
But what did I win?
The first prize, a Mediterranean
cruise on a luxury liner,
flight to Hamburg,
by ship to Southampton,
then through the Mediterranean
to Israel, and back to Hamburg.
"Fine," I think.
"You always wanted to go to
Eretz Yisrael, now you finally can."
"It may be a German ship,
but fifty years is a long time."
"Mazel."
What happens?
When we're arriving in Hamburg
I have to be standing right
where I can see the man
who goes into a cabin and
stabs another man to death there.
Now I'm a witness,
have to testify in a trial,
and on top of that I'm being
played for a fool by someone here.
You consider it a misfortune that
you've finally gotten your Haggadah.
No, that's the fortune,
but a load of misfortune is
probably following behind it.
You saw the murderer?
Are you completely sure?
That was an unhappy
coincidence too.
A glass of juice spills
on the carpet in my cabin.
A girl is cleaning Hamilton's
suite next door at that moment,
so I ask her to
clean up the schlimazel.
She finishes in Hamilton's suite,
locks up, and comes to my cabin.
- Was she cute?
- Very.
Thai girl.
While she's cleaning I stay
in the doorway talking to her and
that's how I heard what
happened next door in the cabin.
In the paper it says that when the
police in Hamburg wanted to know
who had seen or heard something,
you didn't speak up at first.
It has nothing
to do with reality.
But when a door closes and
German voices can be heard outside,
then they're back, the shadows
that won't let you think or sleep.
That's manageable, but
what's not manageable
is when you dream
that the door opens
they all come in, live,
and everything's like before.
I wanted to leave, not to have to
stay in Hamburg after landing.
But then you
spoke up after all.
The police
interrogated the crew
and the Thai girl said that
I must have seen the murderer.
That's how they got to me.
When someone's gone through
what you've had to go through,
is it even possible?
Can you give objective testimony in a
case in which the accused is a German?
Say what I saw and heard.
I can do that.
I'm a witness, not a judge.
But it could depend
on your testimony
whether the accused is
convicted or acquitted.
You actually are his judge.
There are other witnesses too.
You're the one who matters.
I wouldn't want
to be in your shoes.
It would suit you if I said
that I can't remember anything?
It would suit me if you
would check very carefully
whether you really have a gap-free
objective memory of the events.
How do I do that?
For every detail you have to ask yourself
whether that's the way you saw or heard it
or whether that's the way
you wanted to see or hear it.
I needed that advice
from you. Really.
I never would've
come up with that myself.
What do you think I've been
doing in the months since then?
They always say
that you get desensitized.
I've never had that
fortune, at least.
It's like it's all
burned in up here.
A person who one hour earlier
was still healthy as a fish
swimming in the pool
is lying there.
Blood is everywhere.
How can you forget that?
You see everything again and again.
But beforehand,
what you saw and heard then,
you didn't yet know
that it would be important.
Can you precisely
remember that too?
It was important to me.
When I heard that voice, from that
moment on it was important to me.
One has learned to listen to
the undertone in a voice.
That's the only way one was able to
survive, and that has remained with one.
A person who
will become dangerous
has a voice that sounds different,
even if it's quiet and calm.
But an undertone in a voice is not proof
that the man committed a murder.
The tone says that he is
capable of committing one,
and that gets one wide awake.
A person who has
this tone in his voice,
one listened very carefully to him
in order to avoid doing anything wrong.
Did you also hear Hamilton's wife
or her lover speaking with him?
I can't remember.
Then how can you know whether
you might not have heard an even
clearer undertone from them?
The two had a motive.
What kind?
Love.
What drives people
to murder can't be love.
Then you're not familiar
with life-- or love.
But you?
You know it all and are
more familiar with it all.
It has happened
thousands of times.
People who were so
in love with each other
who were so full of yearning
and desire for each other
that they were
willing to do anything
and did away with the
unloved partner in cold blood.
That's love?
Isn't it?
When one only gets one piece of bread
this big for the whole day and
can barely think
from hunger, but
one sets aside half of it,
he for her, she for him.
But you were still a child.
When is one a child?
When is one no longer one?
How old were you?
We saw each other every day.
Rivka.
She was pretty, Rivka.
Clever and good.
When it's all over,
we promised each other,
we will find our parents
and later marry.
Then she stopped coming.
A Kapo whom I asked
where she is, Rivka,
he just pointed to a chimney where
the dark, heavy smoke was coming out.
I didn't believe him.
I was always waiting and hoping
that she would turn up again one day.
I'm still waiting.
[SS SOLDIER]: Everyone stay
in position in front of the train!
[SS SOLDIER]: Everyone
stay together in the group!
[SS SOLDIER]:
Luggage stays on the train!
[SS SOLDIER]:
Luggage stays on the train!
[SS SOLDIER]:
Women on the left side!
[SS SOLDIER]: Men to the right,
women to the left!
[SS SOLDIER]:
Women to the left!
[SS SOLDIER]:
Arrivals step out!
Mr. Rabinovicz?
Mr. Rabinovicz?
Do you know what books the man
whom you hold for a murderer published?
You'll tell me.
Each and every year at least
three or four about the Holocaust.
That's how he came across to me,
like someone who doesn't evade guilt.
I believe he will confess yet.
Why won't you accept anything
at all that speaks in favor of him?
So far you haven't
said anything of the sort
except that you think
someone else is the murderer.
- Isn't that enough?
- Mr. Rabinovicz?
- Yes?
- There's a message for you.
The gentleman is very sorry
that he can't meet you.
His flight was delayed and he was
just able to catch the flight to Rio.
He hopes that you
enjoy the Haggadah.
- And? Is that all?
- Yes, sir.
- No name?
- No, sir.
Why didn't you ask?
My colleague probably assumed that
you'd know whom you're meeting.
Has the flight
to Rio already left?
10 minutes ago.
Do you understand this?
At least we now know that
there's no plan to murder you.
I'm not supposed
to meet anybody.
Maybe you forgot.
Surely I'm not that meschugge.
I don't know anyone
who flies all over the world
and can blow money
on 1st-class tickets.
Then it can only
be a benefactor
who saw your ads and
gifted you the Haggadah.
I don't believe in the fairy tale of
a selfless person who does good deeds.
But apparently one does exist.
You believe in a good person
and in Santa Claus.
And that Wolf
didn't kill Hamilton.
What else did you
want to tell me?
Here is a precisely researched
reconstruction of the course of events.
Don't keep coming to me
with this Schlüter fellow.
Apart from you, he's the
only one defending the accused.
Or at least he writes that.
But his only proof is the claim that
I'm a merciless and unreliable witness.
Aren't you?
Pitiless?
A desperate person
lost his temper for a moment
and made a threat
that he never really meant.
But a reputable witness who
believes his memory to be infallible
gives that to the
state attorney as evidence
that brands this desperate
person a murderer.
There's Wolf!
How do you hear the audio?
Use the headphones!
Find the right channel.
- Do you have another set of headphones?
- Yes.
Here you go.
What did they say?
It was already over.
- Were you able to learn anything?
- About what?
What was said on TV about Wolf.
Whom was I supposed to ask?
You look like someone who
is deliberating what he will say.
I think I just look that way.
He's calling me a liar.
It doesn't say that.
Not literally, but it can be
derived from what he writes.
You called him
a trash journalist.
Not publicly in a paper.
But only because you don't
have a paper available.
That's probably true.
If it's true what
you say that
the judgment may only
hinge on my testimony, then
help me, please.
Not for the world would I want to
say the wrong thing and thereby
make a person
even more miserable.
What can I do?
Listen to me,
and if you think that I need to consider
some point or other more carefully,
then please tell me
immediately.
Agreed.
That afternoon, just
before three, I was on deck.
Hamilton was in
the swimming pool.
Our cabins are next door to each other,
so I greet him, he greets me.
His wife comes out of the bar
and passes him a lit cigarette.
He thanks her with a kiss.
She goes back into the bar
and sits there without leaving
until the murder is discovered.
That doesn't rule out that she knew
about or perhaps even planned the crime.
I'd like to check
my testimony, not yours.
That's your mistake!
You see everything solely
from your perspective.
But if my presumption is true that her
lover was already hiding in the cabin,
then she must have
given him the key.
The fact is that she was
in the bar the whole time.
Where was he supposed to
be hiding in your opinion?
The girl who cleaned the cabin
would've had to have seen him.
She said that
no one was in the cabin.
Did she search everywhere?
The bedroom, the bathroom,
the cupboards under the--
No one asked her about that.
Then Hamilton
unlocked the cabin.
Before he could close
the door from the inside,
Wolf had pushed
his way into the cabin.
There was a heated
exchange of words.
Which you remember precisely?
Fairly precisely, I believe.
Was the cabin door closed?
Open. The entire time.
It wasn't really an
exchange of words.
Hamilton hardly said anything.
Hardly anything? Or nothing?
- Little.
- But?
It wasn't important,
otherwise I'd remember it.
But you remember
precisely what Wolf said?
Hamilton laughed loudly once.
It sounded horrific.
Taunting, humiliating
for the other person.
But you don't remember
what he said to Wolf anymore.
Let me tell the story.
You can ask questions afterwards.
Please. As you wish.
It's like this...
Hamilton was killed by a stab
to the heart. This way of killing
was part of the close combat training
in the units of the German Armed Forces
in which Wolf served
during World War II.
Would you still accuse
Wolf of being a murderer
if he had served in the English
or French or American army?
Why do you always
ascribe such thoughts to me?
However can you
be free of them?
Wolf was a soldier
in World War II.
A soldier in the German
Armed Forces. Yes or no?
Men are trained in close combat
in all of the armies in the world.
By that logic there'd be
millions of suspects.
But millions
weren't on the ship.
But surely Wolf
wasn't the only one.
Were the others checked too?
I don't know.
But I know.
Not a single one.
It wasn't considered necessary
because there's a witness
who claims to have seen Wolf
leaving the cabin after the murder.
Why do you keep
talking about murder?
I'm saying that it
was a crime of passion.
There are no witnesses
who saw the crime.
There's no confession.
Everything is based
solely on conjecture.
But in case of doubt one must rule in
favor of the accused, not against him.
So everyone who could have done it
ought to have been investigated.
That wasn't done.
Due to your statement, the state
attorney concentrated on Wolf
and compiled everything that can be
construed against him to some extent.
Do you have so little
trust in German judges?
What can a judge do
when there's a witness
who is willing to swear
that Wolf committed the crime?
I never said that.
As far as is humanly possible
to tell, he must be the culprit.
Those were my words.
What does that mean?
Merely that you want to see
Wolf convicted of murder
without having to
assume responsibility for it.
Should he turn out to be innocent,
no one can reproach you for anything.
After all, you said "as far as
is humanly possible to tell".
I, the witness Rabinovicz, am only human,
not God, who alone knows the truth.
Should I be wrong,
I can't be blamed.
But I have to say
what I saw and heard.
They're going to
make me take the oath.
He was talking insistently
to Hamilton, so desperately.
I felt infinitely
sorry for him.
I could understand him so well,
because I had once been in
a similar situation myself.
The building owner wanted
to force me into bankruptcy
so that his store
space would free up.
Did you kill him?
In my head? Every night.
During the day I toiled
away and begged for loans.
And were lucky.
I had to file for bankruptcy
and start all over again.
And despite this
you killed no one?
Thank God our actions count,
not our thoughts.
And why the Hell shouldn't it
have been the same with Wolf?
He thought it, said it, sure.
But he didn't do it.
Just like you.
He did it.
Why do you hold yourself
to be a better person?
Because you're Jewish
and he's German?
I haven't said a single word
alluding to what was in the past.
But the whole time you're
criticizing me for being Jewish.
I--
I'm establishing it.
I have respect for what
you had to go through.
If that sounded like criticism,
I'm sorry.
Why are you championing
this Wolf so much?
Let me ask you first why
you're so blasé about his fate.
Is that how you perceive it?
You're determined to put him behind
bars for life with your testimony.
I'll have to swear to tell the truth
and nothing but the truth.
Which you don't
precisely know, though.
I know what I saw and heard.
So what did you hear?
The desperate outburst
of a tortured person.
- Helpless, rash babbling!
- Don't shout at me like that!
How's a person supposed
to think calmly with that going on?
The state attorney will treat you
in a completely different way.
He doesn't care whether
or not you can think.
He wants use your testimony to
pin the accused down as a murderer.
He will keep twisting your words until
you say what he needs for the judgment.
What did I hear?
Hamilton canceled the holiday pay of
the staff in one of his printing works.
Why did he do that?
So that they would strike.
And what did he
get out of that?
The books for the Wolf publishing
house were not delivered on time.
That ruined Wolf, and he
accused Hamilton of that.
And how did Hamilton respond?
There was this terrible laugh.
Then Wolf asked him to
at least stop coercing the banks
not to give him any more loans.
And Mr. Hamilton refused?
I didn't hear his response.
It was very quiet.
But then, I
remember this clearly
because his voice sounded
so bitter, so desperate,
"You want to finally
ruin me, Hamilton."
And he calmly responded, "Yes."
And a little later,
"Are you going to shoot
yourself now? I'm very curious."
He laughed again.
And then there was that
tone that generates fear.
"You'll never know, Hamilton,
because you will
no longer be alive."
Perhaps he said that, but even if he
did, he surely didn't really mean it.
That's how I heard it.
And then?
It was quiet.
I didn't hear anything else.
Why didn't you do anything?
You don't immediately
suspect a crime
when there's no talking next door
for two or three minutes.
Yeah, but then the undertone
can't have been so alarming.
Or else that means you did nothing
when you were convinced
that next door a person's
life might've been in peril.
That's right,
what you're saying.
Maybe I didn't
think that until later,
when I thought back about
how it was at the time.
The Thai girl was
very cute, you said.
Very.
Didn't that make your
thoughts start to wander?
Her hands, her legs,
her little round breasts?
And how that might all look,
let's say, in a bikini.
You really want to
know the precise details.
The state attorney and defense attorney
will want to know even more precisely.
You talked with her?
Nothing special.
I asked what her name is, where
she's from. The things one asks.
And? She answered?
Broken. Her English
isn't very good.
Despite this, at the same
time you heard exactly
was was being said
in the next cabin?
The door was open.
I couldn't avoid hearing it.
When did you notice that it had
gone quiet in Hamilton's cabin?
When?
Just how long it takes until
one notices something like that.
After you noticed
that it had gone quiet,
how much time passed until you
heard someone leaving the cabin?
A minute. Maybe two.
Was there a clock that
you used for reference?
Did you even pay attention
to how much time had passed?
There wasn't any
reason to do so.
Maybe you were taking a stroll with that
cute girl in your thoughts at the time.
One minute might have
passed, or two, or five.
There's no point of reference
for how much time really passed.
It can't have been very long.
After all, it doesn't take an eternity
to wipe up juice from a carpet
and prepare the cabin for the night.
The girl wasn't being very
meticulous with her work anyway.
But there's no real point of reference
for how much time actually passed.
I can't offer you a
timetable down to the second.
Someone who is alleging
something as firmly as you are
would actually
have to be able to.
First there was the argument,
then it was quiet,
and after a time I found it odd
that the door was still open.
I wanted to turn around,
and then I saw him coming out.
- Who?
- Wolf.
Hamilton was dead, after all.
At that moment you
didn't know that yet.
Right.
You turned around and saw him?
No.
I didn't want to let him know
that I'd heard the argument.
So you didn't see who
came out of the cabin?
Wolf's the only one
that it could've been.
The girl stated that
no one was in the cabin.
That's why she locked the door.
Hamilton came later.
He first unlocked the door again.
You saw that?
Saw and heard.
He greeted me with a nod.
When he went to close
the door from the inside,
Wolf was suddenly there
and pushed his way in.
Where did he come from?
He was probably waiting here.
What do you mean,
"probably"? You saw him.
Very clearly.
You said the stairs were here?
Approximately.
Well-lit?
Very bright.
When you then heard someone
leaving the cabin later,
you had to be looking
directly into the light.
Yet you claim to have recognized someone
who ran away with his back to you?
It's possible that
I didn't see his face.
But it was him, I know it.
It was his voice too.
In court I advise you to only
say you believe you saw him.
Anything else could later be
held against you as perjury.
You're getting
me all flustered!
Fine, I didn't see his face.
It was-- It was a man
of his stature, though.
He was talking loudly
and shouting in the cabin.
I heard his voice.
I recognized it.
Then he came out of the cabin.
Someone whose face you
didn't see came out of the cabin.
You don't know exactly
how much time had passed.
So it could also be true that
Wolf had already quietly left earlier.
You didn't notice him
because your thoughts
were occupied with the girl's
nice figure at the time.
Then you heard a
sound and believed
that the person coming
out of the cabin is Wolf,
because you didn't know that
someone else had been in there.
I'm not trying
to influence you.
You don't do anything
else the entire time.
Your version is that
Wolf lay in wait for Hamilton
and pushed his way into
the cabin behind him, hmm?
He asked him once
again to help him.
Hamilton taunted him and Wolf stabbed
him to death in a crime of passion.
Where did he get the knife?
Hamilton often had his meals served
in the cabin, usually steak and salad.
It must have unfortunately been
left there from the previous meal.
The girl had cleaned the
cabin a few minutes before.
Yet the knife was
still lying there?
That's how the
police logged it.
At the time Hamilton was in the pool
and his wife was in the bar,
her lover was hanging
around the serving room.
No one asked him
what he was doing there.
It just so happens that the steak knives
are kept there. Did you know that?
No.
During the entire investigation people
only looked for reasons to suspect Wolf,
because you claimed to have seen him
shortly before you discovered the body.
I'm starting to believe that I'm
the only villain in this sad tale.
You're protecting the villain.
You haven't realized that yet.
What's your version?
Everyone knew
that the billionaire
swam for a half hour
every day after his midday nap
and then worked
alone in his cabin.
While he was in the swimming pool,
the lover got the knife
and, using the key that
Mrs. Hamilton gave him,
he entered the
cabin and hid there.
The girl would've
had to have seen him.
On the one hand you accuse
her of being so sloppy
that she didn't notice a knife
from the previous meal on the table.
On the other hand
she's supposed to have
meticulously cleaned
every corner of the cabin?
That's right.
Either or.
The lover observed the fight between
Wolf and Hamilton from his hiding place.
Wolf then presumably slunk off
with his tail between his legs, quietly,
so that the man in the open doorway
in the next cabin would not turn around.
He was humiliated,
felt ashamed,
didn't want to see anyone
or be seen by anyone.
I believe I would've had to have
seen him despite everything.
You believe that.
But does that mean you can also say
that that it didn't happen that way?
Hamilton wanted to
close the door behind Wolf,
so he turned his
back to the room.
When his murderer suddenly
popped up behind him,
he had no way to defend himself.
His rival held him tight,
jabbed the knife into his heart,
let him silently drop to the floor and
wiped the fingerprints off the knife.
All just like he learned
in the Green Berets.
The only thing he didn't count on
was the door to your cabin being open.
He probably hesitated
for a moment, then he ran.
You were blinded by the backlight.
You only saw his silhouette.
But since you had only registered Wolf,
you had to believe it was him.
And now imagine if
we were in America.
The verdict of the twelve
sworn jurors must be unanimous.
How do you believe
the jury will decide?
Think about it. You don't
have to say anything to me.
Take a piece of paper and
write the jury's decision.
And whenever you're in doubt,
look at the verdict that you
came to in all conscience.
It'll be the right one.
You've probably prevented
me from making a grave error.
I admire you.
Greatly.
Because if you weren't here
I probably would've thrown
someone into inescapable misery?
Because you have the
ability to realize an error.
Let's just say that you have the ability
and I contributed the error.
Whatever this unknown person
is still planning for me,
I definitely have
to be thankful to him.
I never would have believed that there's
a person to whom justice means so much.
Thank you.
Please don't overestimate me.
This is a special case for me.
Mr. Schlüter.
Mr. Schlüter, I have
an urgent call for you.
I can't now.
I'm sorry but Mr. Schlüter can't
come to the phone at the moment.
Yes, I'll tell him. Goodbye!
You're supposed to call your
editorial office as soon as possible.
M. S.
Markus Schlüter. Markus Schlüter.
And again Schlüter.
Always Markus Schlüter.
Always you.
I had to do it.
He's my friend.
I was just about
to tell you that.
Everything was arranged by you?
The Haggadah,
the seat in first class,
the girl from Avia Service,
the young man who photographed me,
so that I'd believe I'm being
followed and threatened.
If you had still been convinced
during your testimony in court
that Wolf was the man who
came out of Hamilton's suite,
then he would've been
sentenced to life in prison.
Then you had the
all-clear signal given,
because you noticed
that I trust you
any you can manipulate me.
Then there was this
fairy tale about the--
about the unknown man who was
just able to catch his flight to Rio.
Wolf?
My father was held
captive by the Russians.
He didn't come back until '55.
My mother had already long been
in a relationship with another man.
Most of the time I
roamed the streets.
I lived like an animal.
Without rules,
without, without--
A few times I--
Twice the German
police locked me up,
a third time the Americans.
A German interpreter
was at the interrogation.
That was Gerd Wolf.
If he hadn't been there, then--
then I would've slipped into the gutter
then and probably never gotten back up.
I owe him everything--
He saved my entire--
Only due to Wolf was I able
to become what I've become.
Someone who tricks his way
into the trust of a foolish old Jew
with lies and deceit.
I'm sorry.
You must have researched my entire life
to be able to set this trap for me.
Wouldn't you too have done everything
to be able to prevent a friend
from having to spend a
lifetime wrongly imprisoned?
You lied to me.
No, no, no, no, no.
I didn't do that.
"In the paper there's only something
about a witness named S. R.
I couldn't have known
that that's you."
Wasn't that a lie?
Yes. That, yes.
But everything depended
on me gaining your trust.
You got it.
But now it's all gone.
And the part about your friend who gave
up his Haggadah to help someone else,
was that made up too?
In March '45,
Wolf was assigned
to a pioneer unit.
Anti-tank ditches had to be dug together
with concentration camp prisoners.
He helped some of them escape,
and one of them,
Azi Salzmann,
visited him after
the war to thank him.
They became friends.
I shouldn't believe
another word from you.
He was convinced from
the start, just as I am,
that Wolf didn't kill Hamilton.
His lawyer thought he
wouldn't stand a chance
if the witness S. R.
stuck to his testimony.
And then we heard from someone in New
York about your search for the Haggadah.
Salzmann struggled with himself
for 24 hours before giving us his.
"Maybe it's a sign
that I have it," he said.
A lure.
Give it back to him.
I don't want it anymore.
Is the memory of your father suddenly
no longer worth anything to you?
It would no longer only remind me
of him, but also of this night.
And I'd like it to be
quickly forgotten.
If we hadn't staged
it all this way,
you would've burdened
yourself with a guilt
for which you never
could've atoned.
Finally someone I can
respect, I thought,
who cares about justice,
who cares about the fate of
a person he doesn't even know.
What are you accusing me of?
That he's my friend?
Would you like it if he
were a stranger? Or what?
You deceived me, lied to me, and
duped me. That's what I accuse you of.
Damn it, I had to do it!
I'm really sorry
that I disappointed you,
but please believe me that I'd do it
time and time again to help Wolf.
But you haven't helped him.
It's too late to go back now.
You know that it may
not have been Wolf.
You have to stick to the truth
when you're under oath.
Can something be the truth
when it's found through a lie?
If your Rivka could've been saved with
a lie back then, wouldn't you have lied?
Leave me my memory.
Don't dirty that for me too.
If you'd known a lie that
could've saved your Rivka,
wouldn't you have lied?
There was no lie
possible with her.
There was no hate, no deceit.
She wouldn't have
allowed any lie.
Your Rivka is a
dream, not a person.
I know that it's a dream!
I know! But I have
to hold on to it!
You could at least allow
me to have the dream!
Justice is also a dream.
Does that mean that we
should stop pursuing it?
If you want justice, why
are you berating me
for wanting to prevent an innocent man
from having to spend life behind bars?
He's my friend.
But have you helped him?
Now I have to say--
I have to tell the judge,
"Don't listen to me.
Last night a person duped me."
And I also have to tell him,
"I hate this man who
showed me a fantasy world
in which people fight
for truth and justice."
I have to tell the judge,
"Don't listen to that,
because I no longer
know what's right,
what I saw and then what I
wanted to see for his sake.
Don't believe me, Your Honor,
because there is so much
disappointment in me.
I wanted to forget that he had a father
who belonged to the other side."
Will you still help me?
What would you do?
What would you have done?
I don't know.
Doesn't one have to do
everything to help someone
whom one thanks
for enabling one
to become a halfway
viable person?
W-- What am I
supposed to tell the judge?
Tell him what you want,
but tell the truth.
This here is the truth.
Not guilty.
Maybe I just wanted to
believe that for your sake.
That's your handwriting here.
If you don't tell the truth,
I will submit all of this as proof,
even at the risk that you yourself
may have to face the judge for perjury.
You want to put me in prison?
If that's how it has to be.
Wolf is innocent.
You can prove that.
If you don't do it,
then that's a far
greater deception
than the one you're
holding against me so much.
I'll say what you want.
Why didn't I stay there?
It's my home. It's warm there.
The people are friendly.
What do I care if I saw a guy
who got stabbed to death?
Why didn't my
tongue shrivel up?
Why did I have to say that I
heard something and saw a man?
No one can force me
to go to Germany--
I'd like the next
flight back home.
- The flight flight to...to New York.
- May I have your ticket?
- [IN FRENCH]: Salut.
- [IN FRENCH]: Salut.
If you change the booking again,
you'll have to pay another mark-up.
It doesn't matter.
WOLF CONFESSES TO
MURDER OF HAMILTON
"Collapsed under the weight of
his conscience before the trial began".
WOLF CONFESSES TO
MURDER OF HAMILTON
There's a flight at--
Do you want to change
your booking or not now?
We wanted to dig a
hiding spot, Rivka and I,
so the SS wouldn't find us when they
make selections and take people away.
The night when they
then suddenly came,
it was just big
enough for one person.
I got there first.
There was no more room for
Rivka. She had to stay outside.
That was the last day.
We children in Auschwitz
used to play "Selection".
We didn't know
what it really means.
All one could do was survive
when being suppressed.
I know that
nothing's left of her.
But every day I still hope
that Rivka will come back.
I'm going to be
in New York soon.
If I had your address, perhaps
I could give you the opportunity
to apologize to me for
all of the slights and insults.
But please don't forget.
I'm sorry.
About your Rivka.