Original subtitles

(thunder rumbling)

(tense percussion music) (thunder continues rumbling)

(tense music continues) (thunder continues rumbling)

(tense percussion music continues)

(tense ominous music)

(engines rumbling)

(match strikes)

(engine rumbling) (tense music continues)

(engine rumbling)

(engines rumbling)

(strange indistinct whisper)

(engines rumbling)

(whisper continues)

(slow-paced dark music)

(engine whirring)

(slow-paced dark music continues)

(engines rumbling)

(slow-paced dark music continues)

(dog barking)

(engines rumbling)

- Your new home.

How do you like it?

- Not very well, sir.

- Why not? - We should be in Russia.

- For what?

- The final assault on Moscow.

- You could transfer.

But by the time you got there,

Russia would've gone like France, Belgium, Holland,

all the rest.

We're all done fighting.

Now we are the masters of the world.

Does it enthrall you, Oster?

- Yes, sir.

- Good!

But we have been assigned to guard this pass,

so here is where you'll stay.

Tell the men to get out.

- [Oster] Dismount!

(guns clattering)

Ernst!

Ernst!

Machine guns come across the ravine into the keep with us.

(door bangs)

(wind whistling) (slow tense music)

(slow tense music continues)

(tense ominous music swells)

(music stops) (wind whistling)

(gun cocks)

- [Captain] What are you doing here?

- I'm the caretaker, sir.

- And they? - They're my sons.

There's a 108 such crosses made of nickel

embedded in the walls of the keep.

- [Captain] You counted them?

Or is it something you tell to your tour customers?

- I'm Alexandru.

My sons and I work here.

No one tours this place.

- I thought the keep was unoccupied.

- We go home at night,

we live in the village.

- Where is the owner? - I have no idea.

- Who is he? - I don't know.

- Who tells you what to do?

- We do what needs doing.

My father spent his life doing it,

his father before him, and so on.

My sons will continue after me.

- There you are.

You may continue your maintenance after we settle in.

- You cannot stay here.

- And why not?

- No one stays here.

- And who forbids it? - No one forbids.

Some travelers have stayed,

we don't stop them,

but no one stays the night.

- Ghosts? Demons?

- No, no ghosts here.

- Death then? Suicides?

- No one's ever died here.

- Then what drives people out

in the middle of a rainy night?

- Dreams.

- (chuckles) Nightmares?

Old man, the real nightmares man has made

upon other men in this war.

The bad dreams of your keep

are nursery rhyme by comparison.

(slow tense music) (engines rumbling)

Come on, I want a tour.

(slow tense music continues)

(fire strikes)

(matchstick clatters)

Who built the keep?

- Some say Turks,

some say the warlords of ancient Wallachia.

- No, no, no. This is not a fortress.

A soldier could walk up the outside wall.

Why are the small stones on the outside,

and the large stones here in the interior?

It's constructed

backwards.

This place was not designed to keep something

out.

What is this place?

- No one knows for sure.

(tools banging)

Herr Officer, stop them!

- Stop what? - They're opening the walls!

- Old man, spikes for lights, we have generators.

The Wehrmacht doesn't live by candlelight.

- Then is he stringing lights?

- [Captain] Soldier, what's your assignment?!

- To string lights, sir.

- Then what the hell are you doing? Answer!

- Silver crosses, Sir.

There is talk among the men.

They hide silver here.

Treasure, Sir.

- Private Lutz, it's been a profitable day for you.

Not only have you learned

the crosses are made of nickel, not silver,

but you've earned yourself a place on first watch all week!

Get out!

- Never touch the crosses!

Never!

- [Captain] And why not?

- You must not stay here.

- Good day, Alexandru.

(tools banging)

(wind whistling) (gentle ominous music)

(ominous music continues)

(bulb shade squeaking and clattering)

(tense ominous music)

(bulb shade clanging)

(tense ominous music continues)

- Nickel!

(tense ominous music intensifies)

(brighter music builds)

(tense bright music)

(chuckles) Nickel.

Yes, nickel.

But not this one.

(bright music continues)

Otto!

Otto!

- I'm on duty! - Forget it, c'mon. Look at this!

(bright music continues)

- Silver!

(bright music continues)

(tool scraping)

Look Lutz! Look at the block!

- This is the only silver cross.

This block moves.

Behind this one block

there may be more silver.

(block scraping)

Are you ready to be rich? - Oh yes.

(block thuds)

(wind whistling)

- [Lutz] A passage, I knew it.

- [Otto] Let's take this cross, replace the block and come back later.

- [Lutz] Don't be stupid, others will hear. Why share this?

(bright music continues)

(Lutz panting)

No block.

Tie these on my ankle.

(bright music continues)

Silver, there's more silver.

(block scrapes) (forceful wind)

Ah! Ah!

Ah!

Pull me back! Pull me back!

(Lutz panting)

(eerie vocalization)

(energy whooshing)

(Otto thuds)

(Otto grunting)

- Lutz!

Lutz!

(Otto sobbing)

(Otto screaming)

(wind whistling)

(energy rumbling)

(Otto screaming)

(air whooshing)

(guns firing)

- Stand down!

(guns firing)

(energy whooshing)

(gentle pensive music)

(tense pensive music)

(tense pensive music continues)

- I need to hire a boat. - Where to?

- Constanta, on the Romanian coast.

- Too dangerous.

Very expensive.

(waves crashing) (pensive music continues)

- Steiner. Last night it was Steiner.

That makes five dead,

and I checked with the radio man,

there's been no answer to your request for relocation.

(engine rumbling in distance)

(engine rumbling)

(engine revving)

(indistinct chatter)

- Stop this, please!

- Stop!

Wait!

Wait!

(guns firing)

(people wailing) (somber music)

- In this village,

partisans have been operating

against the greater German Reich.

- Are you insane?!

- SS Einsatzkommando Sturmbannfihrer Koempffer is what I am.

Captain Klaus Woermann is what you are.

Your request for relocation is denied, Woermann.

I am now in command over this emplacement,

and you will not interfere with our actions.

You,

you,

you,

you and you.

Bring them to the keep.

- Sir, there are no partisans in this village!

These men know nothing!

- [Major] If one more German soldier dies,

all five hostages will be shot.

And five more will be shot

every time another German is killed.

We will continue until partisan activity stops

or we run out of villagers.

- There are no partisans!

- You, see to it that my Eisatzkommando are quartered.

(palm thumps)

(tense dark music)

- Those people you murdered are Romanian citizens!

We are on allied state!

- Let's have an immediate understanding, Woermann.

Who gives a damn about a death of a few communists?

- Listen to me.

MG 34's cover the entrance,

lights illuminate the perimeter,

and whatever kills us, gets in anyway.

Nothing that we do, no security works.

We have seen no partisans!

Something has been released! - Something?

What do you mean "something," Woermann?

Are you trying to create a mystery?

To excuse your incompetence in protecting your men?

- My competence was proven in combat

against soldiers who shoot back,

not slaughtering civilians.

- And I am a political soldier, Woermann.

And I shall say it once only:

your security doesn't work

because your methods are wrong.

The answer's fear, Woermann, fear.

From now on these partisans will be afraid to kill,

because they will fear the price

their actions cause these villagers to pay.

- Now listen,

something else is killing us.

And if it doesn't care

about the lives of three villagers,

if it is like you,

then does your fear work?

Take that brilliant thought

back to Dachau with you when you go.

(bed clicks)

If you go.

Because here in this keep,

Herr Sturmbannfiihrer Kaempffer,

you may learn something new.

- Neither you nor the keep can teach me anything.

- We found the rest of Steiner.

- Come, SS Einsatzkommando Sturmbannflhrer Koempffer.

See the latest present our friend has left us.

Come.

- Bring a hostage.

- [Captain] Explain this, Kaempffer,

this is what's happening to us.

- What do these words mean?

- Herr Officer, I, I don't know.

- Don't lie to me.

Those words are Romanian.

What do they say? I want to know.

- They look like Romanian, Herr Officer, but they're not.

I don't know what they say!

- He's telling the truth!

Make him stop!

- What do you suggest I do?

Arrest him?

- Priest, you're next.

Teach him the art of translation.

- Herr Officer, this writing is like Romanian,

but different, it's, it's meaningless,

it's not written in the Latin alphabet,

nor in the Cyrillic alphabet.

- What can you tell us about the keep we don't know already?

- Me?

Nothing.

- Yes, you were about to say more.

You can tell us nothing. - No.

- Who can? - No one.

- Don't lie to me,

or I'll shoot this man dead.

- There's a professor of medieval history,

at the university in the city of Jassy.

He's made a study of this keep.

Perhaps he can translate that for you.

- His name? - Dr. Theodore Cuza.

He grew up in this village.

Herr Officer,

Dr. Cuza is not in Jassy.

- Then where?

- Dr. Cuza is a Jew.

He's wherever you've taken the Jews.

- Good.

The SS will bring them today from the depot.

(indistinct chatter)

(horn whistles)

- Do you play tonight?

- I don't play music here.

Josefa not happy here.

Why are you here, girl?

- I'm Eva Cuza.

This is my father Dr. Cuza.

We are Jews.

The Gypsies are not the only ones

who are enemies of the state.

- When we reach that new settlement place

they say we are going to,

then I play music for you, gadgie girl.

- There are farms, and wheat fields there,

they said.

(birds cawing) (bike engine rumbling)

- [Soldier] Where are you going in such a hurry?

- Into the pass.

- Get down.

(side stand clicks)

How far?

- To the keep.

- Move away from the machine.

Open the case.

- Don't (foreboding music)

touch that.

(bike engine rumbling)

- 1 will tell you something few know.

The people who go to these resettlement camps,

there are only two doors,

one in and one out.

The one out is a chimney.

(Theodore grunts)

So...

You'd better find a way to be of use to me in three days.

Three days.

Or back to the camps, go you and your daughter.

What does it mean?

- Can you understand it?

- Well?

- The former is in the imperative.

It says:

"I will be free."

- So we do have partisans. - It is old Slavonic.

But written the Glagolitic alphabet.

Your partisans are writing to you in a language

that has been dead for 500 years.

(soft eerie music)

(chair rattling)

- Wood. We need wood for a fire.

- [Captain] Does it get that cold?

- Look at my father.

He looks 687?

He's 48.

- Eval

- He's dying from a variety of scleroderma.

With the temperature in this room,

gangerine will be in his fingers in an hour.

- Alright, that's enough!

- He won't last Major Kaempffer's three days.

- You'll get the wood,

and some furniture

and lights.

Get your food from our mess.

Let me tell you two something.

The Major will snuff you out like that.

He has his reasons for a quick solution.

I have mine.

I don't want any more of my men to die.

Find out what is killing us.

And I may be able to get you to Bucharest

and keep you safe.

- And then again, you may not.

- Mihai, how did you manage this?

- I didn't think I could.

- You rescued us.

For me it doesn't matter, but for Eva...

What fairy tales did you tell them?

- None.

They made up their own.

But I made them believe that you could solve their problems

just to get you brought here.

And now,

now we must get you out.

- How?

- Today I arrange a guide.

Tomorrow you ask to see

the old Slavonic manuscripts in the church.

The guide will take you from the church

across the mountains to the Dnieper,

from there the Black Sea anywhere.

- How far do you think I'll get?

I can't fight, I can't walk, nothing.

You just get Eva out of here.

- Listen to me!

They've already killed three villagers here,

including old Simonescu.

I was in Brasov, they're rounding up trade unionists,

journalists, Jews, Gypsies,

God knows what happens to them.

- We found out what happens.

I'm not going without you.

- You have to try.

I'll carry you on my back if I must.

- Hmm.

- So,

How are you?

- Don't ask.

(Mihai chuckles)

Whoever thought of sticking

the miracle of the human intellegence

inside one of these decaying bodies,

he should have been fired.

- So where else would God to put the human soul?

- In a desk.

(Mihai chuckles)

Maybe a street car.

It wouldn't have been so bad,

it breaks, you get a new part.

- Blasphemy.

One of these days you're gonna believe in the divine.

- You believe in gods, I believe in men.

(Mihai chuckles)

- How's Eva?

- Eva? - Mm-hmm.

- Eva wastes her youth,

chained to an old man in a wheelchair.

I should have a nurse.

She should live her own life.

- She won't let anyone else take care of you.

I have much to do.

- One more thing, Mihai.

- Yes?

- The writing on the wall. - Yes?

- You put it there? - No.

- How'd it get there, Mihai?

(slow tense music)

- There is something that you can do for me,

make me feel easier.

Keep it with you, just,

just two days, as a favor to me.

(lips smack)

(slow tense music continues)

(energy rumbling) (Eva gasps)

(tense eerie music)

(loud rumbling)

(utensils clattering) (indistinct chatter)

- [Soldier] Hey, Ginter, it's your sister!

(men laughing)

- Like me to help you? - Get your hands off me.

- Sit down.

- Go on, Jurgen, use your charm.

Get up and help in there. - All right, that's enough!

(indistinct chatter)

(plates clang)

(Eva gasps)

(Eva whimpers)

(Evan breathing raggedly)

(shirt rips)

(Eva whimpering)

(loud rumbling booms)

(Eva continues whimpering)

(energy whooshing)

(wind whistling)

(energy crashes)

(man shuddering)

(energy crashes)

(gentle ethereal music)

(bright ethereal music)

(wind whistling) (ethereal music continues)

- Eval

Eval

Get away from my child!

Take me and leave her alone!

What have you done to her?

What are you?

- [Molasar] Why are you here?

- They thought I could find what was killing their soldiers.

I have! Haven't 1?

- [Molasar] I need an ally,

but you,

you collaborate!

- No!

Don't accuse me of collaborating with Nazis.

I'd do anything to stop them.

If you don't believe me, then kill me.

(energy crashes)

(Theodore grunts)

(bike engine rumbling)

(crows cawing) (owls hooting)

(bike engine rumbling)

(gentle music)

- Papa?

Papa?

What happenend?

Your hands.

Your face.

(gentle sanguine music)

- I feel warm.

I know,

it brought you here.

- Who?

No, that was a dream.

It was a nightmare.

- It carried you here,

I saw it too.

- What I saw wasn't real.

- Look at my hands, look at my face!

It touched my body.

Look at you.

I don't know what it is

and I don't care.

He's like a hammer,

and can now smash them!

- What are you talking about?

We're dealing with a golem?

A devil!

- A devil? Now you listen to me.

The devil of the keep wears a black uniform

and has a death's head at his cap

and calls himself a Sturmbannfihrer.

- There were two more deaths last night.

You are going to stay at the inn.

You have two minutes to pack.

- [Eva] Why?

- Because I can at least keep you safe

from what is killing us.

And after the incident in the mess,

maybe from the men too.

- [Eva] Maybe from the men.

I'm not going to leave my father here alone.

- Yes.

You should go. - No.

- You now have a minute and 45 seconds.

- A minute and 45 seconds for what?

- Fratilein Cuza's packing her things

and moving herself to the inn. - She is not going anywhere.

- I forbid it, I will not permit you

to send my daughter away.

- You? You forbid?

Let me tell you something, you forbid nothing.

Nothing!

Get her out of here.

(footsteps receding)

- You ready?

- Almost.

- Listen to me, my child.

You are the meaning of my life.

Whatever I will do here, whatever happens to me,

leave me behind.

Escape.

Go with Mihai, do not wait for me.

- No. - Yes!

Go.

Meet a man, live a full life,

and you live for me.

- Who is this?

- My son.

He died in Spain,

5 years ago this month.

Fighting on the Republicans side.

Were you in Spain?

- If I were,

I would have been in the Thalmann brigade,

with other anti-facist Germans.

Your son and I,

we would have been fighting on the same side.

(photograph thuds)

But no, I wasn't.

- What?

- The cross.

Why do you, a Jew, need the protection of the cross?

- I don't.

It was a gift of a friend, a humane man.

Listen to me, Captain Woermann,

I pass the gift on to you.

Take it.

You're a humane man too, and you,

you may need it.

(gentle music)

(bright ethereal music)

(heels clacking)

(utensils clattering) (footsteps)

- How did you get out?

Did they let you go?

Where's Theodore?

- He's still inside.

- [Tomescu] Anything, Domnisoara Cuza, call Tomescu.

- [Eva] I have no money to pay you right now.

- Your father did me many favors over the years,

forget about it.

- Thank you, but we'll pay.

- What are you doing here?

- Is this the only room overlooking the keep?

- Yes. - Then I'll take it.

- It's taken by Domnisoara Cuza.

- [Eva] It's okay.

- Where will you go?

- [Eva] Back into the keep, away from here, I don't know.

- Why's your father in the keep?

- He's being kept there by soldiers.

- Are you gonna wait for him?

Or leave?

- I'm gonna wait right here for him.

- Then you better stay here with me.

(gentle enthralling music)

(gentle enthralling music continues)

- [Eva] Why are you here?

- Eva...

(lips smacking)

(gentle enthralling music continues)

(gentle enthralling music continues)

(gentle enthralling music continues)

- Where do you come from?

- I'm a traveler.

- From where?

- Everywhere.

Go to sleep.

And dream.

(tense ominous music)

(objects clatter)

- You have

death around you.

- At your hands? - No.

- And what you sense is my fate in a death camp?

- [Molasar] A place where people gather to die?

- A place where people are murdered.

- [Molasar] My people are murdered?

- Yes, and others from all over the-

- [Molasar] Who does this?

- Their leader in Berlin

and the soldiers in black.

- 1 will destroy them!

I will consume their lives.

- When

could you do this?

- [Molasar] When I am complete,

in two nights,

if I can leave this place.

- Why couldn't you?

- Because an object of mine,

the origin of my power

must be removed from the keep

and hidden in these mountains

and kept safe from people here,

and from anyone who may come here.

It must be done by someone I can trust.

Like you.

Only then can I leave the keep,

and destroy the soldiers in black and their leaders.

Will you

carry this object

out of here for me?

(tense ominous music continues)

- Yes.

(tense sinister music)

(wind howling)

- Mihai, I'm not leaving yet.

Did you get Eva out?

- Eva.

Eva is at the inn.

- There is something here,

a power.

This power is our salvation.

- Power is God!

And the messiah, his immortal son

who took flesh of the holy mother and of a virgin, Mary.

And I,

I have been right!

And you, you Theodore Cuza,

you have been wrong.

I was right in my simple faith!

I was right!

- Fonescu, evil comes from the acts between man and man.

It wears a swastika and it believes in black dreams.

You know this.

What's happening to you?

- Stay here, stay here with your daughter

and burn with the others.

Burn with the misfits, the Gypsies, the heratics.

I won't lift a finger to help you!

- Mihai.

- Ha, Monster!

Burn in hell!

(tense ominous music)

- [Eva] Mihai!

(tense ominous music continues)

- [Mihai] Come again in glory,

and judge both the living and the dead,

and deliver unto grace...

us!

Your faithful!

- Mihai!

(Mihai growling)

(door creaks)

(tense ominous music continues)

I never thought I'd see you alive again.

Now we can get out.

- Not yet.

Mihai...

Mihai told me you didn't leave.

You're all right?

- Mihai's gone crazy.

What's happened to this place?

- I can't help Mihai.

- What's happened

is that what was repressed

within the keep,

is spreading into the village.

- Who are you?

What do you know about it?

- This is-

- I know that you've bound yourself to him,

that you've agreed to carry the talisman out.

- It's the source of...

- lt is not his, it's what keeps him inside the walls.

And if you carry it out,

he will be released into the world of men.

- What's happening in the world

is worse than anything he can do.

- He is the same.

Look at you.

- Glenn- - What?

- Listen, my body, I don't give a damn about me,

I'm not doing this for me.

- That's why he picked you.

Only someone uncorrupted

could even get near the talisman.

- Don't listen to this.

- You stop this. You stop it!

What are you doing?

Let's just get out of here.

- Don't take it out.

- What do you want?

- There's a stranger at the inn.

He asks questions.

I believe he's connected with the people

who pay for the keep's maintenance.

- Arrest the man, bring him to the keep.

(tense sinister music)

This place

seems to agree with you.

You look

healthier.

- This place has it's strong points.

(tense sinister music continues)

(footsteps receding)

(straps clicking)

(door knob clicks)

(door thumps)

- You're part of this!

Aren't you?

Tell me!

Tell me.

- The talisman that holds him inside is mine.

I have been here for ages,

watching and guarding against what is happening now.

He is being released.

- [Eva] I don't understand.

- I have come to destroy him.

Now,

and it may be too late.

I will end it.

- [Eva] What ends?

- When he goes, I go.

- What?

Then why?!

Why did you come to me?

Become my lover

out of a dream.

- To touch

as only mortal men can do.

(door bangs)

- You will come into the keep for interrogation, now.

- [Glaeken] Stay here.

(slow tense music)

(energy rumbling)

- [Soldier] Leave the cross!

- No!

Leave him! Leave him!

(man screaming)

(guns firing)

(slow tense music continues)

- What was the shooting in the village, huh?

- A civilian being interrogated

resisted arrest.

- Another civilian.

The courageous Einsatzkommando again is victorious.

- Woermann.

Woermann.

Woermann!

(energy rumbling)

- 1 will not- - You will nothing.

You will die.

All of us will die.

- You're falling apart, Woermann.

You despise our ruthlessness.

But you do not grab history by the throat,

and write the next 1000 year future

without brutality and courage!

- Fairy tales, Kaempffer.

Romantic fairy tales

you tell yourself,

then dress up in black and silver

So you can look in the mirror

and maybe believe them!

Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Fuhrer!

At Poznan...

A year and a half ago,

SS Einsatzkommando executed men, women, and children.

Children, for god's sake.

Ruthlessness? Courage?

How many times in this keep

have you made your bed?

- Don't you talk to me about courage.

Were you with the German anti-fascist

fighting us in Spain, no!

Did you stop the Einsatzkommando Poznan?

No!

You have the debilitating German disease, Woermann:

sentimental talk!

It allows you to feel sensitive,

superior, and yet stay safe,

because you take no action.

Your sentimental suffering makes me sick!

- For once you're right, Kaempffer.

I'm only half a man.

All that we are is coming out,

here in this keep. (laughs)

- The man sees the truth. - And what truth do you see?

What are you discovering about yourself, Kaempffer, huh?

“I murder all these people,

therefore I must be powerful!"

And you smash them down because only that raises you up.

It's a psychotic fantasy to escape

the weakness and disease you sense

at the core of your souls.

You have scooped the most diseased psyches

out of the German gutter.

You have released the foulness

that dwells in all man's minds.

You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies!

And from the millions of diseased mentalities

that worship your twisted cross,

what monstrosity has been released on this keep?

Who are you meeting, Kaempffer,

in the granite corridors of this keep?

Yourself.

(guns firing) (men screaming)

(gun fires)

(slow tense music)

(slow ethereal music)

(Major screaming)

(Major whimpers)

(tense ominous music)

(tense ominous music continues)

- The lamb of your body,

Jesus, protect me!

Protect me! (sobbing)

(slow tense music)

What are you?

Where do you come from?

- Where am I from?

I am

from you.

(Major screaming)

(body thuds)

(tense sinister music)

(tense ominous music)

(tiles clattering)

(stone thumps)

(tense ominous music continues)

Carry it from this place.

Take it out of here.

There's no one left to stop you.

(tense ominous music continues)

(Glaeken groaning)

(tense ominous music continues)

(tense ominous music continues)

(tense ominous music continues)

(tense ominous music continues)

(tense ominous music continues)

- Eval

I have it!

- Take it back.

It belongs to Glaeken Trismegestus,

not Molasar.

- No! This is power!

- It's corrupting.

It's changing your soul.

Take it back!

- Get out of my away! - No!

No! - Get out of my way!

- [Molasar] Kill her!

And take the talisman out of here!

(gentle sanguine music)

- Who are you that I have to prove myself to

by killing my child?

- Obey me!

Or you will return to the diseased state I found you in.

And I'll slay both of you!

- If this is yours as you said,

then you take it out of the keep.

You can't?

Then this isn't yours,

and the keep is a prison to contain you.

And you have lied, exploited, deceived,

and you are the same evil as outside this place!

So, you prove yourself to me!

You take it out of here!

You yourself!

Take it!!

(bright ethereal music)

Take it!!

(energy crashes) (Theodore screams)

(tense eerie music)

(tense foreboding music)

- You.

(weapon clicks)

(weapon whirring)

(energy crashing)

- Take your father

out of this place.

(slow tense music)

(energy crashing)

(energy whooshing) (Molasar grunting)

(energy whooshing)

(bright triumphant music)

(air whooshing)

(bright triumphant music continues)

(air whooshing)

(Eva screaming)

(bright triumphant music continues)

(bright triumphant music continues)

(bright triumphant music continues)

(wind blowing)