Original subtitles

Joseph!

Father...

Listen to me...

You're back for real, Joe...

I'm telling you... Me, Georg.

Gustav and I organized the party.

After all, it's only normal that the others trust us.

They hadn't seen you for so long.

You're back, Joe.

You're with us again.

All together.

You're back, Joe.

You've recognized him...

He learned to tap dance just for you,

so that you'd feel at home when you came back.

Gustav and I gave him lessons.

Turn up the music...

Louder, Ben !

You should be happy.

It's party-time, just like in Berlin.

Even if you only arrived from New York today.

Even if Gustav and I were here a bit before you...

Even if the rest of the family arrived from Berlin long ago.

After all...

1938 and today, it's the same thing.

Leaving and coming home...

It's always party-time.

Why...

Why do you call her Lilli?

Breathe, Joe, breathe.

Why...

Why do you call her Lilli? - That's Lilli.

You talked about her in Berlin.

At the start, they called me Lilli.

But you forgot that.

At the start... What start?

Joe... I've always been called Joe.

You're hurting me!

You're not Lilli.

Lilli wouldn't have been hurt.

She was past being hurt.

It was all over...

30 years ago.

Look me in the eye, Joseph.

You always looked me in the eye.

It's Jacob Falsch...

your father.

You talked a lot about him in Berlin.

He came between us.

It's Jacob Falsch.

Hi, Gustav... the Child has come back!

Try, Joe.

Leave me alone!

Leave me alone!

I'd abandoned all hope of seeing him again...

And now, in his infinite mercy,

the Almighty grants me that joy.

You never met, Lilli and you.

Look me in the eye...

Look at me.

I was scared, Joseph.

Don't cry...

Don't cry any more...

It's over.

Nothing happened...

Nothing's going to happen... ever again.

There was a death...

Her death before she started crying again.

She died, M. Falsch!

At the bottom of Caesar Avenue,

in Charlottenburg park,

I pushed his hand off my stomach.

I urged him to stop looking for me.

He threw himself on me like an animal.

He said nothing.

He touched me like a wild animal.

Rachel... Rachel... Our son has come back.

He looks splendid, in spite of that hatchet face...

He looks like me, I think. His eyes have kept that sparkle.

He's older than I was in Berlin, when we last saw him.

You look perfect. Not a thing out of place.

Our child will notice that, I'm sure.

Don't you think your mother is as beautiful as ever?

Introduce me to the Child, if it's not too much to ask.

Get her away from the Child, Jacob.

I've as much right to Joseph as you and your husband.

It's Mina, remember? Your mother's sister.

You...

It's you...

You're our Joseph.

You remember me?

You were still a child when we last saw you in Berlin in 38.

Aren't you saying anything?

I am Jacob Falsch...

Doctor of medicine.

Your father.

You know what happened,

what happened to us that day after you left Berlin in 1938?

Say something.

We haven't talked to each other for years.

You know...

You know, Joseph,

who we are. - They aren't even bothered enough

to ask if you're back of your own will. - Make her shut up!

The important thing for them is that you're here.

And they think it's normal to have a party.

Even if you had to suffer from your return.

You are always there... you've always been there.

You've always been in my life, always shared my life.

Our life with Jacob and me.

No! Let me go!

Who is that girl?

For you I have never existed. - Leave her...

She won't go away.

It's Georg, the painter in the family.

We set off for New York together,

in 38.

My father.

Jacob Falsch.

Your aunt Mina. She hasn't changed.

Yes, I always laugh and cry without stopping to think about things.

The musician in the family.

The last time we kissed,

it was just after my first concert in Berlin.

Your famous concert.

My mother.

What are you doing here?

You didn't like him, yet here you are!

We don't want you here!

You aren't a Falsch!

Not one of us knows you

nor wants to! - Go back to your music, Ben!

My son is your conscience.

And you, Joseph, she's always been yours.

You're not a couple,

but the conscience of what could have been.

You're a wild animal.

Born of a wild animal.

You're right.

Absolutely right.

I am a wild animal.

Born of a wild animal.

She always said no to you.

You told me she always said no.

Call off the dogs, Georg!

Music!

The Child that I had anointed

slipped away from us like a shadow.

His memory became part of me.

Like his pain,

his success distressed me.

I'd like to see it all end.

Just as I'd like to see life without death.

That's only why

I made some vows for his return.

I summon the whole world

from sunrise to sunset.

I call upon all the Falsch's,

who became part of history more dead than alive.

Your brother Oscar Falsch and his wife Daniela.

The eldest, the best of the bunch.

Talks like a German, prays like a Jew.

Thinks like a jeweller.

He had a shop in Kantstrasse.

Your uncle Ruben and his wife Natalia.

He was in the textile trade.

Made his money from military uniforms and blankets.

They are the real Jews... very German.

Your brother, Gustav Falsch...

And your little sister,

Bela Falsch.

I am Gustav... his brother Gustav.

The comedian Gustav Falsch.

I supported Joe through his romantic disasters,

so I imagined you without even knowing you.

I imagined you naked.

By consoling or helping someone, you end up feeling like them.

It may happen, eh?

Anyway...

I imagined you naked.

I was wrong...

Unforgivable!

Have you seen that?

Lilli's dancing with a black.

You've seen that nigger?

It's you I'm looking at.

Joseph never mentioned having a comedian for a brother.

I became a comedian after we escaped from Berlin.

It was the same for Joseph.

He got interested in medicine later.

He's a doctor ? - Like his father.

He hated it. It was his father's idea, not his.

Man gives to the dying what he refuses to the living.

He became a doctor out of deference to his father.

Your Fraulein has nothing to do with us!

Why should she think differently than her father?

You told me yourself he was a nazi!

Mother is in love with the Child...

and Mina is in love with daddy.

I don't give a damn!

It's evil!

It's their private passions...

that made me paint chamber pots.

Not so loud!

Can't we tell the Child everything?

Now that he's here he can't suffer any more.

You only suffer from past actions. -We'll see about that.

I hate your laugh!

I think your dear aunt will try and wreck the party.

The Child has always been her favourite.

He should settle things with her.

Let Mister Joseph speak!

Let the Child speak!

Speak, Joseph!

Speak!

Speak!

I am Joseph Falsch.

Don't worry, we know who you are. - Your return among us...

is a blessing.

Although the Lord in his mercy prolonged my life,

I never stopped searching for answers.

I've strayed like a dog pining for his master.

On hands and knees,

among the ruins of my memories.

I come from a world of chaos.

From Berlin to New York, I've known the agony of a tightrope walker...

contaminated by chaos.

I'm only here for myself.

The Child became man...

and loved only himself.

He's crapped on the remains of his memories.

You thought you'd be able to identify him through your sorrow.

I have no identity. I'm unrecognisable.

You're celebrating a caricature.

Stop talking rubbish, Joseph!

I've outlived you too long...

for your imagination to find a remedy.

You feel bad about it?

Don't make a fuss.

You're just like a Falsch...

A real Falsch!

Even at a distance, you could only be daddy!

But... more up to date.

I'm past it.

The last of the Falsch's.

It was unavoidable...

but I came back at the wrong time.

Without her, you wouldn't be celebrating my return.

I left because of her.

None of you spoke to me about it. You all knew.

I left Berlin because of her.

The day you left...

Our last family Sabbath.

The day of Ben's first concert.

You didn't leave till the end.

Just before the first star faded.

Tell your wife to put out her cigarette.

Tell her yourself. We're doing no harm.

Put it out.

I've got my American visa. - Put out your cigarette!

It's Sabbath, Natalia.

I've got my American visa. - Who gave you the money?

Leave him! He can't stand Berlin any more.

He isn't the first to leave here. - Put out your cigarette, Natalia!

My sister-in-law is making trouble even on the evening of Sabbath.

Before Hitler entered the Chancellery,

you didn't care much about Sabbath.

Gustav and Georg want to go to America with you.

My children are deserting me.

The Nazis want to stop me practising medicine.

But I won't leave here because of that.

They threw Ben out of the Academy of Music. But he won't leave.

They evicted Oscar. But he'll stay too.

Hitler rails against us. But I won't give him the pleasure

of seeing me flee my country!

My last thought was one of hatred.

Against you, Jacob.

Against you, Oscar.

What have you done to us?

What have you done... to Bela?

Why did we stay in Berlin?

Jacob, the Child will tell you your mistakes.

Who of us hasn't made a mistake

which belongs to a time before we were born?

But we have all eternity to make up for it.

You didn't see us crying at death's door.

We are the people you never met.

Georg couldn't capture what we've been through, in his paintings.

And Gustav couldn't imagine it.

Nor the Child get a glimpse of it, not even in his dreams.

Nor Ruben and Natalia, who both fled from Berlin

when it was still time.

Why did we stay in Berlin?

What have you done to us, Jacob? Why did we stay in Berlin?

I kept on at your father for months, in vain.

I kept telling him we had to get out of Berlin.

During all those years in New York, I wanted to understand why.

I looked for the answer.

Why did you lead them to their death...

before they had started to live? - Here's the answer you're looking for.

The Child loved a German girl.

His father loved Germany.

You sinned against the flesh...

He sinned against the spirit.

I suppose dad

and Oscar thought God would be grateful.

And that he would send his angels to help them!

You stayed for love of Germany?

Just say it for once!

Our love of Germany is behind us too.

We're set up, as far as Oscar is concerned.

Even if he has no pride left, he's still full of it.

It's all seen from far...

far away.

It's seen from New York.

Have we suffered

less than the others? You'd think so to hear you talk.

I wouldn't have left my children in that city.

As long as you hide your reasons,

they'll utter words of hatred.

As if death wasn't already behind them. - You said it...

It's behind them...

behind all of us.

At the time, our love of Germany

wasn't behind us,

nor life, nor death.

We were Germans!

We are Germans!

Aren't we,

Joseph?

You're just a fucking Jew who fought against the Germans.

It's seen from New York! You've forgotten!

You ran away before...

There's a huge gap between your end and ours.

Another life! - Calm down.

They had their reasons for leaving.

We had ours for staying.

Gustav left for a career on Broadway.

Georg left because of his painting.

Oh yes, I fled in the name of painting.

I am an artist.

I am a painter.

You became well known...

by painting the hardships of those who stayed behind.

Uncle Ruben left

because of his textile factory.

And Joseph... because of his German girl.

But for her,

he would have stayed. And he knew our fate...

not knowing what to do to avoid staying until the end...

You thought like a Prussian,

that's what made you stay. - I am German.

You're a Prussian.

A little Prussian who won't be easily taken in.

To hear you talk, we were part of the German nation

under threat from international communism.

You're a Prussian! A Prussian through and through!

A fucking Jew in leather shorts!

What did you say?!

Christ! You bastard!

You fall for the slightest provocation!

We were Germans! You've grown old!

You've forgotten!

I hate you!

I hate you for what you've become!

I hate both of you! You and the comedian!

All three! You and the German girl too!

And Natalia! Everyone!

How great...

your party is, indeed!

My attitude... is political...

moral...

I uphold... certain principles...

which I needed to guide me.

Okay, Oscar. Okay!

Yes! To guide me! Principles!

When the thugs of the assault division stole your trinkets,

you thought of us,

in New York. - I'm a German Jew...

A German! We are Germans!

My last thought was one of hate.

Against you, Jacob...

Against Oscar.

Forgive me, Daniela, but your husband...

was Jacob's mouth.

He was his father's eyes and ears.

You found yourself the only job that suited your past.

You exaggerate the past, you embellish it.

Like when you held on to your jewellery!

You hate us!

You have forgotten he is your son.

She's forgotten everything up to our existence.

Speak, Jacob.

Tell the Child everything, now that we're reunited,

and now you're convinced he won't suffer any more.

Jacob, seeing that everyone who suffered is still suffering...

Speak, Joseph...

Tell him his mistake.

Ben, my boy...

At the very end, you looked like something drained of blood...

your eyes and mouth full of snow.

Oscar was proud.

Perhaps he swanked a bit, but it didn't show.

He held up his head, to look taller.

The wolves leapt on Mina and then on Jacob, first.

You remembered only Ben's first concert,

and our last Sabbath as a family.

But the fear of naked people fleeing through the snow,

that you couldn't imagine.

We are those people you never met.

Why did you lead them to their death...

before they had a chance to live?

What have you done to your children?

What possessed you to stay in a place where every single thing

stank of hate for the Jews?

Why this faith... and ridiculous love for Germany?

Tell us, Jacob.

Your sons caught their mother's hate, talk!

If you don't want the Child to doubt you.

What have you done to me?

Why did you deceive me?

I cried in that deserted Berlin,

but I was too cowardly to put my anguish into words,

to explain it with words.

It's easier to close your eyes,

when life slips away without disturbing your habits.

It's not love that makes you cry,

but pride.

You had enough pride alone to last us all for ever!

You dare talk to me about love!

My sister dare...

It's your servant who dare speak to you, Rachel.

I was your servant before becoming your sister.

My lover can talk again!

Blessed be the Lord to whom we owe this marvel!

Your father was busy little Mina's lover.

And Rachel, so sensitive,

was hoping that she wasn't beautiful,

sentimental, or loving.

Everyone knows that servants

aren't supposed to have a heart, or any sex.

I know this is too much for you, Joseph,

and for the two artists.

They must be thinking I've gone too far.

Where was the harm?

You've thrown your youth in my face...

And what about my youth?

My youth which disappeared working for your mother?

I sacrificed it to you without regrets.

And you took it without a thought.

Where's the harm?

When the hurt carries you forward...

when it gives you just enough strength

to enable you to stay alive... Where was the harm?

Since at the end there was the end...

Where was the harm, my angel?

At the very end...

...l cried to hear you crying.

Otherwise I wouldn't have cried.

Even under threat of death, I had no more strength.

I was crying because you hadn't lived.

I was crying because you were the most innocent of us...

The one who was never tainted by evil.

I cried because there was no name for your cry.

Where is the harm? - You had no fear of being hurt.

I would have liked to be like you,

but I didn't have the time.

These children had no experiences.

Where's the harm, Oscar?

I was exhausted, our last months in Berlin.

Instead of fighting against your love for Germany,

I accepted it.

I waited for the end of the nightmare with you...

You were

the only one who argued that it had some logic.

But what logic?

Even Joseph's little German girl couldn't explain it.

I paid for the tickets to America.

Snap out of it...

Snap out of it.

Does the Child recognize me?

He saved the Child...

and the Child saved his brothers.

Without Mina, it would have been with the three of them

as it has been with us.

I am Jacob...

your father...

who was deported to Poland.

Joseph, my son, has recognized me...

and he still loves me.

Now I've no more regrets about waiting so long to see you.

God has sent you back here to save your life.

God has brought you back to us to ensure that our name lives on...

so that we are not forgotten.

I'm past it.

The last of the Falsch's.

I've kept nothing.

Ask my two brothers. Your brother Ruben and his wife.

I finished my medical studies. It's the only promise I've kept.

I've made everyone suffer.

I only loved myself.

Never to see you again.

Never again!

"Never again" became the motto of my life.

Half my life was wasted, and yet...

I loved life so much...

The war went on inside me...

in my heart, in my head...

You've only recognized your son through what made you feel sorry for him.

Why do you say that?

Apologies to everyone for having survived...

but the Lord forced me to, so that everything be achieved.

Don't go to any trouble, you fake negro!

You don't take any more auditions at your age.

You're out of date with your zigzagging.

It's old-fashioned. - You're the old-fashioned one!

A helpless wreck!

It's party-time, Joe! We're celebrating your return!

Stop trying to be a gloating nigger!

When will you tell them about your flops on Broadway and in Hollywood?

You're totally paranoid.

I've always known that your narcissism would drive you potty.

Our jazz singer!

Our own Al Jolson!

The copy of the copy!

His comic face...

The face which was his fortune in America.

The face...

of a Wehrmacht officer!

Tell them.

But tell them, for Christ's sake!

You look just like a real Nazi, Mister Falsch!

The producers couldn't see him in another role.

It's because he's got the right accent.

Gus has never managed to speak American without an accent.

He had the bearing, a real German!

As real as Oscar could ever seem.

How many films did you play the same role in?

Tell us!

Forty-five films...

And afterwards? Tell them what happened next.

After...?

After you were thrown off the Metro because you were high!

Don't push your luck, my friend!

Don't forget we've spent 30 years together. That's a long time!

Especially since we've never lost sight of each other.

After, you started again from nothing, from the start.

You took up again with the happy negro, paid on receipt.

Don't say I'm changing the facts.

Anyway, no one would believe you.

After, you wanted our help... But...

You never learned to cope with your own problems?

Georg didn't give a fuck to know you were off tap-dancing

in a sleazy night-club!

You could have died of drugs!

Coke wasn't the thing for a famous painter.

He hid his dollars under the bed.

Under the bath, in a sealed plastic bag.

How could he have been interested in your death, when he was preparing his own...

It was his own death that fascinated him.

I saw Gustav again only to identify his body.

As for him, I only found his body afterwards.

After he'd been pulled out of the Hudson river.

You don't respect anything!

I never said anything!

I never confided in anyone!

Money and notoriety came to me too late.

Before, I lived like an animal.

All three of us lived like animals, Joe.

Then, when I was famous,

I had no more enemies.

Everyone loved me.

So many people loved me.

Only death was left.

Their love was so vulgar.

My son...

My entertainers!

Our children... Mina.

But how did it happen?

Why were you so unhappy?

I knew that Georg had killed himself.

I read it in a paper in Berlin. - Berlin?

You went back to Berlin?

When did you go back?

Well... we went back when we had the chance...

after... -After?

It's difficult to explain, Jacob...

After the war.

It would take a lot of words to make you understand.

I would have to create new words.

You came back after the war? -After the end of the war.

After some years in Palestine.

How can I explain it...

We went back to Berlin because...

You were in the promised land... and you left it?

You left Palestine to return to Berlin?

It was too hot in Palestine.

Ruben couldn't stand the heat.

His blood pressure wasn't good.

What's Jerusalem like? -What? Jerusalem?

I lived in Jerusalem.

I've worked there... prayed there.

Like in Berlin.

What happened... to Kantstrasse?

The old houses have been replaced

with new, less attractive ones. But higher, a lot higher.

Berlin is like New York.

Yes, nowadays everywhere's the same.

And Friedrichstrasse?

Just as sad as the torn-down houses.

And Kronenstrasse...?

Rebuilt, but without the sparkle.

And "Johnny's Night Club"?

Not a trace.

Do they remember us in Schlosstrasse?

We had some friends there...

Even after 1933.

The house was destroyed in a bombing raid.

We went to see the building they've put up there.

No one remembered us.

Even in the houses nearby.

Nobody's heard a word about the family.

They've forgotten, haven't they?

They forget what they deem convenient to forget.

No one could describe what Ruben went through.

In Berlin, a Jew keeps his mouth shut.

His soul is somewhere else, it's hidden under his feet.

No true German rejoiced with me about the defeat,

about the annihilated, flattened, stripped towns,

about Berlin's humiliation,

about a dead, deserted town...

under the bloom of new lime trees.

No true German...

No young German...

Ruben? - Yes?

They don't remember, but they haven't forgotten.

It's not the same.

They miss us, don't they?

You wouldn't have tolerated to live there, if not.

I even tolerated to die there.

You look so much like him...

Looking at you, I don't know who I am any more.

I died at 17.

Joseph is in New York.

I can't look like him. - I feel like I'm seeing him again...

Like I'm finding him back, as if nothing ever happened...

There are centuries between Joseph and me.

You can't confuse us.

I've lived so little...

I don't want to hurt you.

I love you, Ben.

I cried under the bombs in Berlin.

The chateau at Charlottenburg was burning.

So were the gardens we were walking in.

The fire ran along the two banks of the Spree.

I cried under the bombs.

I cried out against death with all my strength.

Now I rejoice at Berlin's disaster.

I rejoice in death and misfortune.

Did you hear that?

Lilli loves us.

She loves us.

There are not just Jews and Gentiles.

There are the satisfied and the starving.

Did you hear that, father?

He thinks he's Christ!

This is the same Christian bigotry he wrote to me about.

To encourage me to stay alive.

But he didn't believe it.

He didn't love! He didn't pray!

He thought he was indestructible! Didn't you, Joe?

And he still thinks he is indestructible! Immortal!

Father...

Listen to me!