- I had once the beautiful fatherland.
The oak tree grew so high there.
Violets nodded softly.
It was a dream.
It kissed me in German and spoke in German.
You would hardly believe how good it sounded,
the words, ich liebe dich, I love you.
It was a dream.
- Adam.
Adam, it's time.
- Oh, my landlady Ruth Edelson.
Let me ask you something.
Am I still handsome this morning?
Tell the truth now, come on.
- Of course you are, Adam.
- I don't think there's any time for the-
for the breakfast.
You know, I have never asked you, my darling,
how old are you?
Forgive me, you are the witch.
You are the hexer.
You have swindled time.
- Adam, please.
- After you fell asleep last night, darling,
I lay there.
I was thinking,
"My God, this woman's skin is unnaturally smooth."
It is like porcelain.
In fact, I can see my reflection in it.
[singing]
Now, what are you hiding under there?
Darling, show me.
Show me, show me. - Adam.
- Come here, just a little peek.
A bruise?
[door swings open]
- I'm sorry, Adam, believe me.
Forgive me, Adam.
- Morning, Adam.
All set to go.
- Ja, do not forget this Olivetti please.
- We won't, pal, come on.
- Forgive me, Adam.
I shouldn't have called them.
Please forgive me.
- It's all right, Ruth.
Oh, you taste like...
soap.
- So why'd you do it, Adam?
- Do it?
What is it you think that I did?
- You know, that old magic trick
where you separate a woman's spinal column from her skull.
Choking his landlady.
- Oh, this is- that's ridiculous.
- Nah, he didn't mean to hurt her.
Just wanted us to bring him home again.
Right, Adam?
- Yeah, woof, woof.
- And so I was once again returned
to my home in the desert,
The Seizling Institute,
founded by American philanthropist Rebecca Seizling
as a center under the direction of Dr. Nathan Gross
for innovative therapy
and as a home for the survivors of the Nazi camps.
Muhammad.
[speaking foreign language]
- [speaking foreign language]
- Do you see that?
- Come on.
Big guy's waiting.
[woman singing in foreign language]
- Adam.
[speaking foreign language]
- Oh, that's a big hug.
- He's back.
- I am so happy to see you too.
Yes, still sweeping.
Am I tracking-I don't want to track sand on your-
on your floor.
And heil to Rebecca.
All my best friends.
What's this?
Oh, transport.
Have they all gone insane? Wel...
- Two hundred bucks.
Adam, been hiding them for months.
You've got to tell me what to do.
- AT&T, Mr. Blum, New York Stock Exchange.
Here, give it to me.
I will double it for you in- in no time.
- Adam. - Ja?
- Columbus was Jew?
- Yes, yes, Mrs. Lipowitz.
Columbus was definitely a Jew
but also an Italian, so as a matter of fact,
I would not trust an Italian, and neither should you.
Ja, it's true, they're an enlightened bunch.
But they licked the jackboot,
and now they expect everyone to forgive and forget.
[baby crying]
[woman coughing]
- My train. - Ja.
- You.
- Really, Arthur, you know that Mrs. Seizling strictly forbade
any form of locomotive combustion at the Institute.
- My train.
- Arthur- [speaks foreign language]
You know what I'm talking about.
Fellow survivors, it's so good
to be back here at the Institute,
though not as inmate, not as guinea pig.
No, this time, I am on the mission
to expose the lunacy
of the medical staff here at the Seizling Institute,
the negligence, Dr. Shapiro,
and the impotence
of Herr Professor Nathan Gross, et al.
- He's lying.
Authorized by whom?
- [speaking foreign language]
And here she comes.
I could hear her methodical footfalls
and irregular heartbeat.
Nurse Gina Grey,
a pearl in a dunghill,
a book of rules,
and with that classy ass.
[trumpet bugling]
- Arthur, please stop that.
- No.
No.
- Adam.
Would you come with me?
Dr. Gross wants to say hello.
- No. No.
- Would you please swallow those pills, Mr. Blum?
- [speaks foreign language]
- Hmm, not now.
You've lost some weight, Adam.
- Oh, ja, I was-I was pining for you, my child.
The nights have been the worst, you know.
- Hmm.
I've heard about your nights.
But I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt your landlady.
- Come in, Adam.
- Oh, come here, Gina.
Let me smell something.
Oh, ja, just like I remember.
- Touch me.
Touch me.
- Come in already.
Yes, you love doing that, don't you, Adam?
- Uh, oh, ja, the- the sharp transition.
Here one moment...
- You know, Adam-
- Gone the next.
- What I can't figure out,
why haven't we been able to help you?
You're a brilliant man.
You've been called a genius.
- Name: Adam Stein, next of kin: none whatsoever,
number on my arm:
sieben, sechs, drei, vier, fuenf.
Gross, file it away and let me go.
- And yet, you see, for all your knowledge,
your sixth, seventh sense, here you are
back at the Institute after trying to kill a woman
less than 24 hours ago.
- This is a lie.
No, this is a lie.
- Yes. - No, that's a lie.
- A woman named Ruth Edelson.
- And you, Gross, you are- you're a joke.
- Ah, do you want to tell me why?
- Ja, back there, it was absurd to believe...
in anything.
In the sun we did not believe.
And yet you, here of all places, you believe in miracles.
You not only believe in them; you depend on them.
This is not only hilarious; this is chutzpah.
- Adam. - Ja?
- There's only one person in this institute
who can work miracles.
- They're circus tricks.
I could teach them to you in a day.
Listen, Grossie.
See, I've been the-the star of your-
your medical experiments,
and you have failed miserably.
So don't you dare talk to me about some miracles.
Now, of course, my job is to fail.
I am the sick dying clown.
Fine, this is my business.
But what have you done to help me,
to help any of us?
- No, you're right.
And I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart.
- [speaks foreign language]
As long as you know.
Now let's just see what's going on
with your lovely personal affairs.
- Oh, now, wait a minute.
Please.
Adam, stop.
- It has not been your day, has it, Doctor?
Some milk of magnesia.
That would solve the problem.
Constipation, it's a horrible thing, but don't strain.
- Cut it out.
- You don't have to suffer that way.
- If only you'd use your gift a little more constructively.
- Oh, I could if I wanted to.
But, you know, I-I do not.
[speaks foreign language]
No, I am going to be your miracle that never was.
- And we've heard all this before, Adam.
Go on and get some rest.
Go, already. Get out of here.
- Where the hell is all this coming from?
- And no pulse.
- Maybe in a hundred years,
we'll know how to help the Adam Steins of this world.
- Adam.
- Step back, Rachel. - Adam.
- Get away from him.
Rachel.
- Is it time, Adam? - Step away from him.
Rachel.
- Oh, thank God.
The birth pang of the Messiah.
I knew it.
They've begun.
Oy vey.
- It's good to have you back, Adam.
- Frau Fogel, the whisky in the baby bottle, please.
My wife, Gretchen.
Little Ruthie.
Thank you, Frau Fogel.
Ah, malt whisky.
[cheers]
It's for the good night's sleep, ja?
All right, please.
Oh.
Gretchen.
So sweet.
- Blech.
- Ah, she doesn't like it.
She doesn't like it.
The most expensive Stradivarius.
Here we go.
[playing melancholy violin music]
[cloth tearing]
[laughter]
- Ladies and gentlemen,
meine Damen und Herren
Adam Stein.
- My wife, Gretchen.
Oh, so beautiful.
Oh, no, no, you cannot keep survival off the stage.
Don't scare me like this.
My darling.
A volunteer.
all: Oh-ma-ha.
- Ja-ha.
Everybody loves this.
No, you volunteer too often.
This fellow, please, may we?
- Bitte nicht.
- Please, my eye fell on you right away, please.
Such a good sport, give him a hand.
He's shy.
All right, now, have we ever met?
Do we know each other?
- Nein. - Nein.
All right.
This young man, ladies and gentlemen,
well, did not want to come to Adam's circus tonight.
This man had other plans.
This very night he intended...
to take his own life.
[crowd gasps]
No, my friend, no.
Please, do not go this way.
Let me just glean just a little.
Maybe there's some good news here.
Let me see.
We have here, folks, a graduate of Heidelberg Universitaet.
Oh, though, obviously no- no star pupil.
This is Zyklot 17, the animal tranquilizer.
Ja, for the permanent relief of pain.
Ja.
Oh.
[crowd gasps]
[drum roll]
[applause]
- [laughing]
[crowd laughing]
- Tell her to leave me alone.
I do not have the strength.
Do you hear what I'm asking you?
- I would if I wanted to.
But I don't.
- What the hell are you doing?
- Shut up, darling, and move over.
- You are insane.
I am calling the night nurse.
- Right here at your service, Adam.
- [growling]
- [speaking foreign language]
Ladies and gentlemen,
we bring now to the stage my daughter,
the amazing, the brain-bending, Miss Ruthie.
Ja, ja, ja.
[applause]
Isn’t she so amazing?
You are my angel.
Do not be frightened.
You cannot see anything, can you, Ruthie?
- No. - No.
She says no.
She's looking askance at me, my-my darling wife.
Oh, I love to get a smile out of my wife.
Give her a big hand.
What's down there?
Ah, I love that.
Ow.
My wife, Gretchen.
I pick up the first blade, so absolute silence.
Here we are.
[laughter]
Ruthie, don't.
She will do anything to avoid this part.
You don't like this part, but no brain bending.
That is-
[laughter]
[applause]
When you pulled up the thing and you winked at the audience
and they went crazy, you were killing me.
That stays in the show.
- Papa.
- You are a little genius, I think.
- Papa, there's a man.
- Was that spontaneous, or did you work it out before?
Tell me.
That's your bit. - Adam, it's him.
- Volk.
- Well, Herr Stein.
All performers must be members of the Reichstheaterkammer.
You do not qualify.
- No sense of humor at all.
Tell me this.
Did your men like that bit with the bear?
- Erschiessen.
[gunfire]
You were warned, Adam.
- I am not political.
Everyone loves the circus.
- Well, I have to admit,
things have been less interesting around here.
- It seems incredible.
A man who only yesterday spewed out
streams of blood from his toe.
- Not to mention the pancreatic tumor he sprouted in March.
And the heart attack last summer.
The man has actually spat out part of a lung.
I mean, it's an amazing thing, the self-destruction.
- The amazing thing about Adam Stein
isn't his control over his body.
It's his power over you, Nathan.
- What?
- And a few other staff members I could name.
- Relax, Uri.
Eat your foie gras.
- Adam. - Look who's here.
And, Wolfowitz, now look,
mein Gott im Himmel, you look just awful.
It's just not- not good.
Ah, Rachel, oh, you pumpkin.
Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
And Zelda, dear, ja, you keep the sky from falling,
but-but sit.
- Adam, Schwester's been dreaming again
with her nonsense.
She says it's soon, very soon.
- And she is right, Wolfowitz.
Yes, beautiful, what is it?
Tell me.
- He came again last night.
Shh. - It's a secret?
- The Archangel.
He lay beside me and said,
"This time Adam has returned to lead the sufferers,
"the bearers of the blue numbers, to the desert.
The gates of heaven will open and"-
- No, of course- of course I will, Rachel.
That day is near, but not yet, dear.
Not-not before lunch.
I will usher and proclaim and rescue.
Me, the clown?
- You see that?
You know he takes money from the patients?
Invests it in the stock market.
Gross.
You?
- For the Institute, Slonim.
I mean, whatever else he is,
he's a very astute financial advisor.
- You're worse than Rachel Schwester over there.
She thinks he'll lead them all to salvation.
- Adam, I need to talk to you.
- No, later, later.
[sniffing]
- What is it?
What is it, Adam?
Hoof beats?
- Gross.
Who let a dog in here?
Nathan, who let a dog in here?
- What are you talking about?
There's no dog here.
- When I first came here,
they promised me that there would never, ever be any dogs.
How could you?
- Calm down.
- [sniffing]
[dog barks]
[dog howling]
- Edward, how are you today?
[dog barking]
[whimpering and barking]
- My God.
- [barking]
- [grunting]
- Adam.
Adam.
- [growls]
- All right.
Come on, Adam, come on.
Okay.
Ja, good.
Good.
Ja.
[man speaking German over loudspeaker]
[dogs barking]
- Papa.
- You are my angel, Ruthie.
Do not be frightened.
[dogs barking]
[men shouting in German]
- You.
Well, Adam Stein.
The funniest man in Germany,
delivered to Stellring, of all places.
Come here, Adam.
I am Commandant Klein.
I can't tell you how happy I am to see you here.
You should have seen him at the circus in Berlin.
Any kind of animal, he could do it.
Such a clown.
Go on, Adam.
Do a trick.
Make us laugh.
- Mama, Mama.
- Ruthie?
- Where are you taking me?
- No, no, no.
Now-now do a dog for Rex here.
You've made a friend, Adam.
The smell of a Jew usually sends Rex into a frenzy.
Sergeant, take Herr Stein to Rex's pen.
No, Adam...
on all fours.
It's funnier that way.
- [speaking German]
- Go on, Adam...
or Rex will get all the meat.
I followed your career, Adam.
You studied philosophy at Heidelberg, didn't you?
Funny we never met there.
- Herr Kommandant, please.
- I'm a keen observer,
a student of the Semitic phenomenon.
Of course, you're not an average specimen,
Germany's most celebrated clown.
You're a superman, Adam, practically Aryan.
So maybe we can help each other.
Head down.
Don't look at me.
A life for a life.
Mine for yours.
You stay here with me, make me laugh,
keep my mind off the business outside.
Believe me, it's a thankless job.
- My wife and daughters.
- What's that?
Speak up, Adam.
- My wife and daughters.
- [laughs]
Bargaining already, Adam.
The Semitic phenomenon in action,
right here at my feet.
Unfortunately, I am only Untersturmfuehrer.
I don't make the rules.
But we'll see.
Yes, we have plenty of time.
Rex.
Go on, Adam.
Wonderful, Adam.
Now, eat.
Eat.
Schmackhaft.
[dog barking]
- Nothing with claws or paws.
Seizling gave me her word.
- Room 285 is in the observation ward.
It's off-limits.
Now, Gina tells me
that you slept on the floor again last night.
- Oh, is this how you're going to break me, Gross,
with a dog?
Well, nice try.
But look at me.
See? I'm smiling.
- No, actually, Adam, you're crying.
- It is- Ja, you momzer-water.
I had a-I had a drink of water on the way.
- Through your eyes?
Come on, Adam, you can do better than that.
- Okay, I am ready for you, Frankenstein.
If experiments are your game, then let's play.
Give me your best shot.
But before you cure me,
you will all go crazy yourselves.
- The door to 285 is locked.
- [whistling]
- I'm glad to see you feeling better, Adam,
but we're a little busy at the moment.
- [whistling]
- Not now.
- [whistling]
You and I, my darling, we're going to cry together,
and I'm going to drink your tears.
Yes, I love very deeply.
It is the romance supreme.
Do you understand, my- my dar-
- There are rules, Adam.
- Compassion.
Mercy.
You're the nurse.
What-what happened to-
- You break the tiniest rule, you break the entire system.
- Do you know who is also a great believer in the rules?
- Hmm?
- Kommandant Klein.
Ow.
- What a terrible thing to say.
- Ja, well, I only insult people I love.
- You don't love me.
You treat me like a dog.
- Ja, exactly.
Oh, but you're so wrong.
With you, I lose control.
When I was strangling the landlady,
who do you think I was really strangling, Gina?
You.
- You bastard.
- Do it.
Do it like I taught you, sweetheart.
- No, they'll hear me.
- Do it.
Ja, down on your knees and crawl.
That is correct.
- [yelping]
- Ja, but that sounds like a schnauzer.
I want the wolfhound.
- [barks]
[barking]
- Oh, I like it.
- [barking]
- Oh, that's right.
- [barking]
- Oh, that's right.
[barking]
- You're despicable, darling.
Just give it back when you're done.
[dog barking]
- Let me see what kind of beast has Gross brought here.
Let me see what you are.
Come here.
- [growling]
- Ow!
- [whimpering]
- You know you can't be in here, Adam.
Come on.
Come on, let's go.
- Bad dog.
Bad dog.
- Okay, let me see your hand.
- I told it I'd be back, and it understood.
- Get back in there.
- [whimpering]
- The stench.
Lying in his own goddamn feces.
- But the attendant, that flea-bitten gibbon,
he did not.
- Adam, stop.
Stop it now.
- [coughing]
Son of a bitch.
Crazy son of a bitch.
- Before Hitler, we were hated by the rest of Europe,
loved only by our Jews,
who somehow convinced themselves
that our two nations shared a common destiny.
A pair of pariahs,
so said your man Kafka, that demented Hebrew.
Sprung from the same bosom.
No wonder it's such messy business
vomiting you from our midst.
Adam!
Down, boy!
Without rules, there is chaos.
I know you can appreciate this.
Even in a circus, there are rules.
- Herr Kommandant.
Those trucks outside, the Red Cross.
- Shh.
You don't hear Rex begging for favors, do you?
- They are taking prisoners to Matsdorflager.
Ask them to take three more.
- Rex knows his role: to serve and protect.
You know yours: to comfort and entertain.
And who knows?
Maybe that in itself can save a life, yes?
- Yes.
Danke schoen.
- Look, Adam.
Look what I found for you.
It once played in the Dresden Orchestra.
There's been some rethinking.
We have new work for you.
[dogs barking]
[melancholy violin music]
- That's nice, Adam.
- Adam Stein?
- Frau Fogel.
- Listen, Adam.
I have news.
- Quiet over there.
- Ruthie's alive, inside Germany,
someplace special.
- Play it, Adam.
[playing melancholy violin music]
- You're crying, Adam.
- It is water.
I had some water before.
Did I kill him?
- Almost.
You've got to be more careful, Adam.
We still need you.
- Danke schoen.
- Listen, Adam.
I've had it.
In a month's time on Purim's Eve in 1962,
Abe Wolfowitz is going to be a dead man.
- What?
- I've been sewing my own shrouds from bed sheets.
Don't tell Gina.
- You are not going to leave me alone in this madhouse, Abe.
- Seriously, Adam.
Me and-and Him,
we're going to have it out once and for all.
I want to know how-
how He could be so cruel.
And if He won't come to me, I'll go to Him,
and you'll write my eulogy.
- Okay, I-I'll write your eulogy.
- Such a beautiful child, my little Naomi.
Didn't look anything like me.
Got it all from her mother.
You write it down, Adam.
- What do I write, Wolfie, addressed to whom, God?
God is out to lunch.
He left a note, see, on your- on your arm.
- Don't say that name.
- You are not going to kill yourself.
You remind me of Rabbi Lichtenstein,
who-who back in Stellring- listen-would argue
that our debasement was not God's doing but Satan's.
Listen.
But I would argue that the crimes of Klein
are the crimes of Hitler,
but the crimes of Hitler are the crimes of the Lord.
- No, no, no, no, Adam.
You get some rest.
We can do this later.
- But wait, wait, Wolfie.
The-the thing in 285 barks like a dog,
smells like a dog, but uh, the teeth?
- Do I know, Adam?
It's-it's just some crazy kid raised in a basement
with a chain around its neck.
- A kid?
- Gross says it's dangerous.
Nobody goes near it.
He's Gross' special project.
- [growling and barking]
- So you think-
you think that you are the only one?
- [barks] - Ja?
Ja.
Let me tell you,
oh, there are others.
Me, for instance.
Ja.
Oh, ja.
I am the con man.
I am the freak.
I am the monstrosity.
I am the genius.
But true genius, it comes with a price.
Ja, the singer joins the opera.
The mathematician unlocks the secrets of the universe.
But me?
Oh, my gifts, worthless.
And so I was marked for the circus.
I was destined for the sideshow.
And for the doghouse.
- [barks]
- Ja.
Oh, you didn't know this, did you?
Oh, ja.
For one whole year, I ate from the dog bowl,
lived on all fours,
slept in the pen, shat on the ground.
I learned from the master.
Sturmfuehrer Rex.
- [growls and barks]
- But now do you see where my gifts have delivered me?
Now, hang on, come here.
Wait, wait, come here.
Shh.
Hang on. Hang on.
Ja, let me just see this.
The dog that is not the dog, the child that is not the child.
This is the way they looked, back there in the camps,
sunken cheeks, tubercular chests,
and from inside the blackened sockets,
those eyes sick with fear but alive.
- [playing trumpet]
- Enough, Arthur.
[liquid trickling]
Adam.
Shame on you.
- This is a place for survivors, right?
- Yes.
- Well, what is this boy doing here?
Why-what are you doing with this comb?
Gina, do not-don't make- don't do it with the comb.
-Well, Dr. Gross brought him.
- Yes, Gross.
- He was howling and biting himself,
sodden with his own filth.
We tried to get that awful chain off him,
but, you saw; it's still on.
- No one has the right to be more than me,
not you, not the dog.
- More what? - Crazy.
He's crazier than me.
- You're not crazy.
- I am crazy.
-You're sick. - No, I am crazy.
You're sick.
That dog is superior to me, do you understand this?
No?
He has succeeded where I have failed.
He is Gross' star.
- I think I have a right to say-
- That you love me.
- How did you know what I was going to say?
- Because I can read you.
You love the crazy, the aging, the sub-human Adam Stein.
Why is this?
Why?
A healthy Adam Stein, for you, not so attractive.
- It's important that you know, really know.
Makes no difference why, but I do with all my heart.
- Yes, you're a whore, and I use you.
Now, listen, my landlady, Ruthchen, the quiet type,
fucking her was like fucking butter.
Fucking you is like fucking the motorcycle.
- You're cruel, darling.
- Oh, Gina, Gina, it's a little humor.
Child, this is what saves everything.
Klein knew it well.
You can weed out more sub-humans in a day
with humor and Zyklon B
than you can with Zyklon B alone.
It's the combination.
Ja.
- Adam.
What are you doing in there?
[laughs]
Adam, you devil.
- Well, it is Purim, after all,
and I can get another toothbrush.
Now, back to work.
We're almost done.
I still think he looks a little too-I don't know-
healthy.
Don't you think?
- Blacken the eye sockets, for your Purim costume.
Rex, hold still.
- And?
- Oh ja, of course, ja, ja.
Here we go, Rex.
Ja, you're a prisoner.
Look scared; he is the Kommandant.
- Wonderful.
A Purim to remember.
- Kommandant, my family.
- You're a comfort, Adam...
a lifesaver.
Before you came, it was killing me.
Now it's better.
Bravo.
Bravo, maestro.
- Whoo!
Adam, Adam.
- Schwester. - Adam?
- You are looking today so very, very transcendent.
- Thank you.
- Tell me, have you been grooming
this little moustachio of yours?
Oh, this is so becoming on a woman.
It's a very, very striking kind of thing of course.
But do you not think it is a little warm
for the woolen Unterhosen?
Thank you.
- Adam, I prayed for you to return,
and you did.
- That was nice, Schwester, bringing a man back into prison
when he's having such a swell time on the outside.
L'Chaim, Schwester.
Mmm.
I accept your assignment.
I will be your holy ventriloquist.
But just now, I have got to see a man about a dog, shalom.
- Woe be the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves.
- Auf Wiedersehen.
- Shouldn't the shepherds feed the flocks?
- Good-bye.
I am so sorry that I just popped up before and ran off.
I got thirsty.
Did they torture you?
Who was it?
Golomb?
That tiny Torquemada with the jangling keys?
Sturmfuehrer Slonim?
You can tell me.
You're the only one that I can talk to
in this godforsaken place.
Yes, you are not a phony.
And to me, this is a- this is a very big deal.
Believe me, I can sniff one a mile away.
And so can you, can you not?
It is you and Adam Stein against the world.
You and I, we are going to take the trial run.
On we go.
Yes, I know you're a dog.
I understand.
There's nothing to be ashamed of.
- [barking]
- Don't panic.
- [barking]
- No, this is laundry, dirty laundry.
Ja, let's take a little tour.
Oh, look who's here.
Look who's coming.
- Do you really think this is doing the boy any good?
- He's a dog, Gina.
Show a little respect.
Come on. - Hey.
- Ja, this is Gina Grey's classy ass.
- Shoo.
- Ja, looky, look who's here.
Look at them, kid.
These-these wretched souls have-have chimneys for hearts.
And Gross tries to heal them with, mescaline, LSD,
hypnotherapy.
Knows that it cannot be done.
And Seizling?
Ja, she thought she could save these walking tombstones too.
Thought I could save them.
But I never said that I could.
I never promised them the burning bush.
Go away, Arthur.
Go light a fire.
How's the knitting, by the way?
- You're not the rebel you think you are.
You know what?
Look over there.
There's a man behind the curtain,
pulling your strings.
- Ja, I'm giving another talk tomorrow.
A history of drama from the dawn of man till the present
entitled "Whisky and Dramaturgie."
Do try to come.
All right, are we all here?
Yes, we are.
Then let's-let's begin.
Mm.
[barks]
A dog barks.
But a dog barking on a stage is no longer a dog.
This bottle, for instance, I pour.
I raise this glass to my mouth, and I swallow.
Mm.
But am I really drinking,
or am I a man playing a man who is drinking?
Close your eyes.
Yeah, that's right.
Not so fast, Arthur.
You've got to register first, please.
- Name.
- Schwester, you know my name.
- Arthur, we all registered.
Name?
- Arthur.
- Last name.
- Fine.
Arthur Fine.
- Perfectly fine, Arthur.
Schwester, where was I?
- "But am I really drinking, or am"-
- Exactly, folks.
We're all actors...
in a drama which both playwright
and director have long ago abandoned.
Nonetheless, meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren,
ladies and gentlemen, to bring the curtain down is impossible.
The show must go on.
- Hey, what's going on?
He's drunk.
He's really drinking up there.
Adam, you're a liar.
- Nonsense.
Nonsense, Arthur.
It is water.
You, of all people, should appreciate
what I'm trying to teach these people, the artifice,
the necessary lie that we all needed to survive.
Mm-hmm.
Here, here, here's a quick example.
Ja.
It is 1945.
It is dark.
A man is running through the Naliboki Forest
with a cocktail?
A Molotov cocktail, ja.
The war is over, but not everyone knows it yet.
Arthur Fine has been in the camps,
escaped,
lived underground, with the Bielski Partisans.
- [laughing]
- Yes, laughter.
For us, back there, no other way.
But then you came to Palestine,
this theater of the absurd.
And for a while, you forgot the first rule of Dramaturgie.
You found a wife, a daughter.
But it seems you were merely observing
the second law of Dramaturgie, the pause,
because soon the fires burned again.
Laughter sprang forth.
You laughed as you set fire to your house.
- No.
- Your wife, your little girl.
- Bastard. - To yourself.
Then one day, Mrs. Seizling showed up at the burn ward.
Fortunately, the Dachau number on your arm was preserved,
and she recognized you as one of her flock.
You.
Curtain.
Now, the point of this demonstration?
Just as sadness creates tears, so laughter creates the joy.
Don't look so horrified,
meine sehr verehrten Damen und Herren,
to laugh, ja.
If I had not been able to laugh back there,
I would be dead.
Me, you, all of us.
And in room 285,
there sits a young mutt who is laughing at us all.
What does he think,
he is better than the rest of us?
I will later give him some corrections.
Open your mouths.
Wide.
Wider.
Relax the neck muscles.
Wrinkle the noses.
Take a deep breath.
Perfect.
- Ah.
- And laugh.
Ha, ha.
Louder.
Everyone.
Louder, louder.
- What are you doing?
- Louder, louder. - What are you doing?
- Everyone.
I know that it hurts, ja.
- No.
- Look at me.
I am burning. - No.
- I am dying, but I can laugh.
- No, stop it!
Stop laughing!
He's like a dog.
He's telling us what to do.
He licked his boot.
[playing trumpet]
[laughter]
- [barking]
- What do you want from me?
All right, come here.
- [whimpering]
- Let's get this dog collar off of you.
- [barking]
[whimpering]
[barking]
- Intestinal bleeding, swollen limbs.
- Acute renal failure, I knew it.
[dogs barking]
- [men shouting in German]
[playing melancholy violin music]
♪ ♪
- Adam!
- Gretchen.
- Papa. - Oh, my dearest one.
- Adam.
Try to find her. Ruthie.
- Adam.
- Please, Papa.
- I love you.
- Adam.
Play!
These people need some Marschmusik.
Play!
[frantic violin music]
[speaks German]
[electronic beeping]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[steady drone]
[frantic violin music]
♪ ♪
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
[howling]
- What the hell is that?
- [howling]
- [gasps]
- Shut up.
He's not dead, okay?
[typewriter clacking]
- It was Purim 1942.
The SS were going door-to-door, clearing out the ghetto.
My Naomi, my beautiful little Naomi,
she was Queen Esther that year.
I'd sewn her a dress and made a crown from a tin can.
That night after services, we snuck out.
The Nazis were a few blocks away,
so I knew we had some time.
Just outside of the ghetto, there lived a Mrs. Marshack.
She used to bring me all her children's coats to mend.
And in her house, there was a basement.
And under the basement, there was another basement,
a pit with a trapdoor.
Down that pit went my-my little queen.
As we left her there, I could hear her whispering,
"Why, Daddy?"
[typewriter clacking]
13 months she was down there, Adam.
She was a child.
Her body had to grow,
and this crown,
she never took off this damned crown.
That heartless, blind, mute son of a bitch.
Why?
Come on, you tyrant!
Why?
- Wolfowitz.
- Tell me why? - That's enough.
You're gonna hurt someone.
- Tarshish.
This is the point.
Take me inside.
Let him let out some steam, please.
Let him-let him do it.
- Why, God?
Why?
- He misses you, Adam, the kid.
You know, he didn't really think you were going to hurt him.
- He told you that, did he?
Well, you tell him for me that he is better off without me.
- He was watching you type just now.
- Tarshish, this is crap.
- No, Adam.
- Get away from me, please.
- Wait, Adam.
- Tarshish, I am tired. Leave me alone.
What in God's name?
- Don't tell anyone, okay?
I'm counting on you.
No crazy stuff. - Right.
Wait, wait.
Do not give me this look, kid.
I was sick.
I was dying.
Kidney leaking with the white ashes.
Oh, we're no good for each other, kid.
Oh, this is not going to work.
What do you want, my Olivetti?
What, you saw me writing Wolfie's eulogy,
now you want to write mine?
That's, you know, that's very intuit-intuitive.
But let's not do it.
Do it on the paper.
Wait a minute.
You're going to jam it.
Here, I'll put it on the floor.
Try that out.
Well, damn it, kid.
You're the little maestro.
Why the hell didn't you say so?
Okay.
I can see that you're the sentient being,
and sentient beings need what?
The name.
Here, maybe something that you're typing
can give us an idea.
Here, let me see.
Ah, "fdg fdga."
Ja, that has a mysterious ring to it.
But how about something with a little symbolism?
You know who you remind me of?
David.
David Rex.
Ja, king of the Jews,
descendant of Adam, forebearer of the Messiah,
musician,
fornicator,
bloodthirsty warrior,
built Jerusalem,
brought in God in this...
box.
Ja.
Long live Davey, king of dogs.
- Purim, our day of joy.
Bah.
Look at that, Adam.
They want us to dress up in costumes.
He saved us from Haman only to toss us to Hitler.
- God's logic is not our logic, Mr. Wolfowitz,
nor can we begin to fathom His ways.
2,000 years we've stood face-to-face, Him and us.
- Then he turned and sicced Rex on us.
- Still, you're a believer, Mr. Wolfowitz,
and Adam too.
And your tirades, gentlemen,
are nothing but manifestos of faith.
- Schwester, this is very clever.
Did I say this? - Of course.
I write it all down.
Oy, soon, Adam-
[shouts in foreign language]
- Schwester, give him a- throw him some scraps.
Ah, evolution is hard work.
Oh, the little embryo is evolving
a million years at a time.
Come on, we have got some work to do.
- Writing, Adam? What is he writing?
- Poetry, poetry, Wolfie, sheer unadulterated poetry.
Blumers, Mrs. Lipowitz.
Stop by my-Adam's circus
and see the miraculous offspring of Olivetti und Rex.
Heel.
Heel, come on, let's go.
- Adam.
- No, no, no, heel, heel.
Come on. Come on.
David.
- Wait, Adam, me first.
- We were in Mrs. Marshack's basement.
- 13 months she was down there, Adam.
How much is that in numbers?
- 13 months is, um-
Well, it's 390 days, 9,360 hours.
- 561,600 minutes she sat there...
waiting.
Why, God?
Why?
"May his question soon be answered.
Signed, Abe Wolfowitz."
Then you say Kaddish, Adam,
and maybe serve some refreshments.
- You lived, right?
That's what matters.
Ja, ja.
- The circus is here?
- Yes, it sure is, come on.
Come on, look how excited Rachel is.
Come on, ja, oh, everyone's come.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, darling.
Thank you, Mr. Blum, ja.
Come on, Arthur.
All right.
Thank you.
Do the reading outside.
Ah, ladies and gentlemen, meine Damen und Herren.
This is your big chance.
Ready?
I give you the king of dogs, Koenig der Hund,
David.
[humming circus music]
- Bravo, bravo.
[clapping]
- Messages from Davey.
For you.
- What?
What?
- "AT&T up 300 points."
Bravo, Adam.
- [speaking foreign language]
He's speaking in tongues.
When, Adam, when?
- What?
He's been pounding out gibberish.
Nathan, we've been treating that boy for two months now,
making our way through his defenses,
and along comes Adam Stein with a typewriter,
and you're beaming at me like you've invented penicillin.
- Well, I'm sure Adam will be more than delighted
to share the credit.
- Nathan, please.
Adam is unstable.
He's dangerous.
Instead of restricting him, increasing his medication,
you give him unlimited access to the Institute.
You turn a blind eye to his alcohol,
his love affair with your head nurse.
- Read.
- What do you mean, read?
- Leave Adam to me.
- "Gina Grey's classy ass."
You know what?
Why don't we just let the patients cure each other,
and you and I can sit around in our pajamas playing cards?
- That is the most sensible thing you've ever said.
- Oh, fine, fine, fine.
That is my boy, David.
This is my king of dogs.
Do not eat the- do not eat the paper.
Ow.
Stop this.
You are not a dog.
Do you know why I came back?
I could have died, kid, ja.
The heart was blocked.
Slonim was pounding my chest, calling my name.
There was nothing else he could do.
And I was wrestling with the Angel of Death.
I stopped him at the gate.
Do you know why?
Huh?
[whispering] To see you again.
That is why.
I love you, child.
But it's no damn good.
You lean on me, we will both go tumbling down together.
[engine revving]
[dogs barking]
[dog whimpering]
- Zyklot 17.
Rex would have preferred it that way, don't you think?
When the Russians arrive, they will shoot him like a dog.
Get up.
I have something to show you.
Baron Von Hamdung.
Do you know the name?
Iron industry, shipping, petroleum.
Not long after the war broke out,
he was accused of treason.
His entire estate,
Swiss bank accounts, holdings, were nationalized.
A clever SS accountant-
well, I thought I was clever at the time-
was put in charge.
He was meticulous,
which is how he rose so fast through the ranks.
But this one file, he put aside.
In fact, he stole it.
And incredibly, it was never missed.
[dog whimpers]
Patton's Third Army has crossed the Danube.
The Russians are in Berlin.
It's the end.
For me, this document is useless.
But we had a deal, you and I.
A life for a life.
So here.
It's Von Hamdung's last will,
the rights to his home and possessions,
and you are the sole beneficiary.
You've been a good dog.
The truth is, I could have saved your family,
but it would have been inconvenient.
I would have had some explaining to do.
Do it.
[dog whimpers]
[gunshot]
So there's life in the old clown yet, eh, Adam?
- Ja, ja, I get it.
- Adam Stein is at home?
- Herr, Hermann Lichtenstein.
- Rabbi.
Welcome to Valhalla.
- Adam.
Look at us.
How can it be?
[muffled explosion]
- Oh, Rabbi.
It is-it's only dynamite.
They're putting up an apartment block next door.
But on my land, no resurrection will occur.
You have the word of Von Hamdung.
How did you find me?
- The only Jew in Germany should be hard to find?
You're in the papers, Adam, the newsreels.
Let me ask you.
Your daughter, the older one, Ruthie,
did you ever try to locate her?
- Such a cheerful presence, Rabbi.
Truly, you light up the room.
- I'm sorry, Adam.
But I have to.
- She's dead.
We both are.
What is the point?
But if you have to, what, know?
Ja, I did.
For four years, I looked.
I put Von Hamdung's blood money to good use, believe me.
Then it dawned on me, Rabbi.
If she was alive,
then it was she who was not looking for me.
- Adam.
- She would be 25 this year.
She would have heard about the antics of her famous father
who was once a dog and is now not much of anything.
And who in the world could blame her
if she chose to be silent?
- We survived.
It's not a crime.
A crime is to blame yourself instead of them.
Now, listen to me.
She is alive.
She was in a holding camp after the war.
She married an Italian,
and last year, they moved to Israel.
- Heinz.
- She lives as a Christian in Haifa.
We were notified three weeks ago
when she was admitted to the Franciscan Hospital.
They looked at her papers and contacted us.
- Hospital?
- The Nazis, they injured her, body and soul,
but she lived.
And now, thank God,
you are about to become a grandfather.
I think it's time to talk to her.
And if not to be forgiven, then maybe at least to be heard.
- Rabbi, you have some nerve coming here to my sarcophagus.
Heinz, get my gun.
- Her name and address, should you so choose.
You don't have to punish yourself, Adam.
Why stay in Berlin?
What's keeping you here?
You're not dead yet, Adam.
- It's so hot in here.
Why is it so hot?
- It's a hothouse, Adam.
- Hothouse in the desert, typical.
What is he growing anyway?
- Oh, melons, tomatoes, herbs for the kitchen.
- Hey.
Today you were thinking about Gretchen.
Oh, no, no.
Lady, this is not so nice.
You have no right to be brooding about Gretchen.
That woman had faith in me.
Adam clowning around as she took her final steps,
and she had faith in me.
You have faith in no one.
- I have faith in you.
- You are lying.
Don't, please.
- No one's been able to get through to him but you,
the poor child.
- It is not a child.
Do not call him the child.
Dog, he's a dog. - He types on a typewriter.
He doesn't bark anymore.
You, God, made him into a child.
He was non-human; now he is human.
- Wait a minute.
Are you jealous?
- Why can't I be jealous?
Of course I'm jealous.
I'm jealous of the boy.
I'm jealous of Gretchen.
We used to be together so much before.
I used to bark for you.
I can still bark.
[barking]
- You are not a- you are not a dog.
Gina.
Bitch at heart.
You-stop barking.
Stop barking.
You're not going to come between us.
This child is mine.
We are two dogs in the desert.
I took off his mask, and now he wants my power.
I cannot be the true dog.
Neither can he.
- He's a child.
He needs love.
- You had better not interfere.
[David barking]
Keep going, kid.
We are going to do this.
Marsch, hund.
Come on, hey.
You see this fence?
You are going to grab onto the fence
and stand on your feet.
This is all your fault.
Everything I did for you,
and now for me, you are going to do one thing.
Here we go. Stand.
Oh.
Ah, hund, hund.
Come on, schnell.
Okay, you ever been to a circus, huh?
Bears, horses, lions,
every goddamn creature on this Earth.
Even Arthur Fine can stand on two feet.
You're not the dog.
You're not the boy.
Come on, come on, come on.
David, David.
That's it, darling.
Do it.
David, ja.
- He's a boy, Adam.
He's a child.
- I told you to leave us alone.
I warned you.
So what are you?
Lizard?
Leech?
The little rat?
Okay.
Yes, okay.
Ja.
And stop.
David, get down.
That is-that's enough.
- Oh, no, no, no, let him.
He's making it.
- Whore, leave me alone.
David.
David, ja, this is enough for one day.
Down, down, down you go.
Down, please.
All right, no more.
I am not ready yet.
I cannot do it.
I'm dying.
Please, please, please.
Please.
Shut up.
- Look...
at me.
Look.
- [growling]
- Come on, help me.
- Okay, I got him.
Let's go.
[Adam barking]
This time you've gone too far, Adam.
Too far. - It's all right.
It's okay; you made it.
You're a man,
our man.
- [growling]
- David?
Come on, kid.
You can do it.
Come on.
- My God, Adam.
- Come on, come on.
Oh, okay.
- Go back to Europe, you old soap.
- My name is Adam Stein.
I'm looking for my daughter Ruthie.
- Joe Gracci.
- Oh, Joseph.
- Come in, please.
- Ja, so nice to meet you.
Am I interrupting something?
[voices overlapping]
[indistinct muttering]
- Would you like some coffee?
- I think you should leave now.
Thank you very much for the flowers.
Outside, please.
Please, outside.
- When?
When-when did she-
- When?
When she found out what you had done.
That's when she died for the first time.
And then with every report that came in, she died again.
The Commandant's pet, huh, wasn't it?
You, what, you played
while your wife and your daughter
went to the ovens?
Huh? And Ruthie?
Do you even know what they did to her?
- Where is she?
- Wherever she is right now,
she doesn't want you to be there.
I guarantee you that.
We know about you, Adam Stein.
You lived on Nazi money in a Nazi mansion.
- I can find it.
I can find the grave on my own.
- Don't you dare.
I'll take you.
- Spare a pfennig?
- It's over there.
They bury them together when they're that young.
A boy, by the way.
You know, it's funny, I...
I never once saw her laugh.
A clown's daughter,
and she could barely break a smile.
So?
They say you were quite the performer back there, huh?
Now, go ahead.
Make her smile now.
Go on, Dad.
Do something funny for your little girl.
- And so I found a home in the desert.
Rebecca Seizling herself greeted me at her Institute.
And she looked me in the eye
and knew that she had met her prized puppy.
But the joke was on her.
I lived; she died.
[all singing in foreign language]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
A boy who is not a dog after all.
[applause]
[distorted audio]
[growling]
- Spare a pfennig?
- Oh, ma-ha, ja, ha.
Ruthie, do not be frightened.
Ah, my beautiful wife, Gretchen.
Genug!
Purim?
You're celebrating?
Oh, Purim, on account of that one poor son of a bitch Haman?
What about the eight trillion tears?
Who is going to pay for those?
The eight trillion teeth and soap suds?
Skin and bones?
The unfertilized sperm, the unborn children,
the unwritten books, the unrequited loves,
the unslept-in beds, huh?
You're the God who sends out Stormtroopers,
multiplies their brain cells, makes them smarter than us?
No, I will show you show you what we're celebrating.
Schwester, who are you?
- Rachel Schwester.
- No, hold up your arm.
What does it say?
- Six, one, three, four, five.
- Then who are you?
- I'm six, one, three, four, five.
- Yes.
Blum, you?
- Two, four, two, two, five.
- Yes, who are we, ja?
The rest of you, roll up the sleeve.
Raise those arms.
Zelda, she knew what she was doing all these years.
Smile, all of you.
It does not hurt.
It did; it does not anymore.
Arms straight up.
We are this very night an army of arms.
Shout out your numbers.
Let him know that we are not dead.
Sieben, sechs, drei, vier, fuenf.
[voices overlapping]
- Six, one, three, four, five.
- Seven, one, three, oh, two.
- Eight, four, two, nine, six.
- Seven, one, three, oh-
[voices overlapping]
- Seven, one, three, oh, two!
Seven, one, three, oh, two!
- Show yourself.
Show yourself.
[voices overlapping]
[footsteps approaching]
Show yourself.
- Adam.
Adam.
[Klein laughing]
- On all fours, Adam.
It's funnier that way.
Adam Stein.
The funniest man in Germany.
- Why are you here, Klein?
- Did you really think
you could be rid of me so easily?
I have been here all along.
I am part of you.
Me you brought with you from Berlin.
Me you brought with you on the boat.
Me you carried into the desert in your suitcase.
- Adam.
Adam.
- What are you looking for, Adam?
Try and find her.
Ruthie?
You weren't much help to them, were you?
Your wife and daughters.
- I do not need you anymore.
- [laughs]
It is only you and me.
We're one and the same.
- Adam.
- We have unfinished business.
Isn't it time for the curtain to come down?
Hasn't Adam's circus gone on long enough?
Now do it!
Do it.
And you'll be rid of me.
It's the only way.
Do it.
- Nein.
It is not.
- I thought you left me.
- I was here all the time.
- You went away.
- I'm back.
Rebecca Seizling's Institute continues as before.
For Rachel Schwester, for Arthur, and for the rest,
life goes on.
Abe Wolfowitz, his prophecy, however, did come true.
He died in his sleep
on the very night that he had predicted.
In the years since I left the Institute,
Gina Grey has not come once to Tel Aviv for the visit.
The moment I recovered, Adam Stein was, for her, buried.
Dr. Nathan Gross, who had absolute faith in my recovery,
him I will miss.
David was released that winter into the custody of a relative.
Gross has assured me that this relative
is the upstanding citizen, the family man,
someone who can give the boy the life that I cannot.
I miss him, my Davey.
He writes to me.
I follow his progress,
and I will visit him soon.
But he has a life now, his own life,
and a home in which to grow up.
As for me, I have become...
the ordinary man.
I returned to Ruth Edelson's pension.
I could no longer give myself diseases
nor bring about my own end.
I no longer carry Klein inside me.
I live in a lovely valley,
but the heights are gone forever.
There are no more frightful deserts,
and I no longer leap into the fire.
I am afraid that I will get burned.
Sanity is pleasant and calm,
but there is no greatness, no true joy,
nor the awful sorrow that slashes the heart.