All language subtitles for Butterflies.in.Berlin.2019.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-ZTR

[Handel's "Fra l'ombre
e gl'orrori" playing - Opera]

[Hilde] I think it's only right

that this diary arrives
in your hands

and you keep it properly.

[Alex] For a long time,
I searched for the white stone

that purifies the soul
from sins.

A diary is a necessity

to recount how you ceased
to be true to yourself.

[Lively swing music]

My inner nakedness
was my inner most secret.

I arrived in Berlin
in a cold winter's day

and it seemed to me
that everyone I met on my way

knew it already.

I abandoned my hometown
to get away from those people

who all my life have told me
how to behave,

what to think, who to be.

Berlin seems like a great place
to start looking for myself.

I have my whole life ahead
of me to answer that question,

"Who am I?"

Finally I meet the Wise Man of
Berlin, as he's called.

He has full, fleshy lips
and clever eyes.

He offered me his chubby hand
and introduced himself

as Doctor Hirschfeld.

He was one of the nicest people
I've ever met.

[Dr] Prof. Fromm told me about
you and your soul in torment.

He tells me that
you are a brilliant writer,

but you've abandoned your talent
to teach.

But who are you really, Alex?

I don't know.
I have the body of a man

but there is a slight doubt
about the appearance of things.

After all,
I don't even know who I am.

[chuckling]
You are transsexual.

Transsexual? New to me!
What does it mean?

I coined the term.

Well, I don't know
what it means,

but I hope that being
transsexual does not imply

I am a lesser sort
of a human being.

And why should that be so?

This sexual orientation can be
found at all levels of society

and among respectable people.

Those who say otherwise speak
from pure ignorance and bigotry.

Being transsexual doesn't mean
I have to deny my real self

in order to make someone else
feel comfortable?

[Dr] We all have the right
to express our authenticity

in the respect of diversity!

It's true.

For too long
I've betrayed myself.

Find the courage to be yourself.

Your only risk is learning
something about yourself.

You have no idea of the number
of sexual orientations,

it's almost infinite!

In all individuals there's a mix
of male and female elements.

Take my advice, go and visit
the Kurfürstendamm district,

then come back and see us.

[Upbeat jazz music]

[Alex] Rudolf came into my life
in March 1933

and never left it again.

I remember the day and the hour
I first sat eyes on this boy

who was to be the source
of my greatest happiness

and of my greatest despair.

[Piano music]

I thought about my conversation
with Dr Hirschfeld.

"Find the courage
to be yourself."

The moment had arrived.

In that moment,

when I found the courage
not to lower my eyes,

but hold his gaze
as transparent as crystal,

I discovered freedom.

[Piano music]

And so we stood together,

just holding each other
without saying a word

and time stood still.

It was all we could do

to stop us from being
swept away into the night.

Rudolf, just imagine
we can go anywhere we want to.

I've always aspired to love,

but in fact I never knew
what it really was

because I always felt foreign
within my body.

You have to keep living!
Live to change the prejudices!

To be, simply to just be,
is a challenge.

I haven't been so brave
until today.

I've understood that I have to
take care of my soul.

I'm really not afraid of
physical pain.

It's the irrationality
of it all... it terrifies me.

Our value depends on
the values we create,

both material and spiritual.

If love mostly serves to enhance
the happiness for all people,

then it's perfectly
comprehensible:

it should also include
persons of the same sex

or transsexuals.

Love frees mankind...

and action makes it great.

The time has come
to open my body up to desire.

The patient is prepared,
we are ready to begin.

[Opera music]

And so, I shall go out.

It's time to be born again.

I'm not actually
going to change.

I will simply return to myself
to the time

before the lines of my hand
drew my destiny.

I have taken off the bandages
around my chest,

I have stroked myself
at length.

It didn't give me pleasure,

but I had violent sensations
like electrical shocks.

I knew that the return to
myself would take time,

that I have to
re-educate my emotions.

On the 6th of May, 1933

the German Student Union
made an organised attack

on the Institute of
sex research.

20,000 books and journals and
5,000 images were destroyed.

They seized the Institute's
list of names and addresses.

Last time I saw Dr Hirschfeld
was during my operation.

He remained an exile
during one of his travels

and since then
I have not had any news.

Nothing has remained
in the Institute.

We don't exist anymore.

From today I have no identity,
I've lost it definitively.

I knew that night was going to
be the moment

when the sky would be stained
with blood.

[Pompous classical music]

I can truthfully say
I am a new person,

at least I believe it.

But in the meantime
the world has changed.

The city seems to be assailed
by monsters

that I've only ever seen
in paintings.

But hell is not an image,
it's a feeling.

Hell is deep within us.

Is there still room
in this world for me?

The sun shines

and Hitler has become
the king of the city.

Every day
I go to the hospital in vain.

It's the only place left where
Jews can still take refuge.

I always hope to find names of
friends and Rudolf

among the list of patients,
but it never seems to happen.

My presence
did not pass unnoticed

and today the director,
Dr Lustig,

unexpectedly offered me
employment as secretary

for a special program
within the hospital.

I decided to accept.

It seemed to me

the only way to make sense of
the days of my new life.

I compile lists to choose those

who receive certificates of
exemption from work.

A medical commission
chaired by Lustig

visits dozens of patients
every day.

Many ambulances take the sick
and crippled to a clinic

where they will stay
until they're healed.

Now, all the older people
and the infirm

clinch
to the hope of these exams.

[Officer] At the behest of
Eichmann, you'll have to

participate actively
in the program "Aktion T4".

[Lustig] Let me know
how we can help our nation.

[Officer] You'll offer
medical examinations to patients

to prove
their inability to work.

Those who pass it
will be part of a special list,

from which we'll select
guinea pigs for our program of

the suppression of those
suffering from genetic diseases.

We plan to use the others
in the work camps in the East.

[Lustig] We'll do our best
to satisfy Colonel Eichmann.

[Melancholic classical music]

[People screaming]

Good morning, Miss. A list of
a new category of people

indicated by the Police.

They come from prisons for
violating Article 175.

They'll also participate
in a rehabilitation treatment

and we'll visit them
before their departure.

[People screaming]

I have nothing more to lose

and I have so much damage
to repair.

[Meryl] Hello, I'm calling to
have more information

about the diary I received.

Is there a telephone number?

...Is it possible
to have some information?

...Thanks a lot.

Is it you?

I recognise you.
Why are you here?

I'm sorry to disturb you.
The diary is interrupted,

I wanted to find out
how Alexandra's story ended.

So I followed the address
on the envelope.

Come with me.
You must see a place.

[Hilde] I personally met Alexandra

when she gave me her diary while
working at the Jewish Hospital.

After she discovered that Rudolf
and others were destined

for Dachau concentration camp,

she could not
remain indifferent.

[Hilde] Alexandra was passing
the English Consulate

and saw a long line of Jews.

They were trying to get a visa
to escape from Germany.

She then came into contact with
Frank Foley.

He was responsible for visas,

he helped thousands of Jews to
flee, granting them visas.

Alexandra starts to help him.

Along with Hubert Pollack,
his collaborator,

she provided them in advance

with a list of Jewish patients
in need of a visa.

Working at the hospital

she could get information about
people who could still be saved

while waiting to be transferred
to the concentration camps.

Foley once managed to enter the
Sachsenhausen camp directly.

He was able to take out
Gunter Powitzer

who'd violated
the laws of Nuremberg:

he had an intimate relationship
with a non-Jewish woman.

From this relationship,
a child was born.

And that little girl was me.

I was 12 and with my mother
we were at the Jewish Hospital

as if in Limbo.

We were waiting to
be sent to the camp

or waiting for a miracle:
to see my father.

And that miracle happened!

Foley was sent back to England,

but before he left, he could
give us a visa for Palestine.

The hospital
was no longer safe for Jews.

Only a few years ago

I became aware that
a few months after we left

Alexandra was captured,
interned

and she died here.

When Alexandra realised

that the moment of her end
was coming too,

and knowing we would be saved,

she entrusted her diary
to me and said...

"This diary is written with
the tears of the heart,"

"invisible to the man who
doesn't know how to listen."

"It's no longer of
any use to me."

"Keep it."