Original subtitles

Lottie?

Matty!

Lottie!

My housekeeper must be in the cellar.

What's it like breathing?

Well, we've been having some cold weather.

No pain?

Not pain as you'd call pain.

In peace time, you might call it pain.

These days, illness is a luxury.

They've owned somebody from your lamppost.

Last night.

Still, we don't want to lose you, do we?

Sit down. Get your breath back.

Does this mean bad news?

Might as well drink it before the Russians do.

Was it what you suspected?

Oh, no.

Never had the X-ray.

And firmly got cut off.

Still, I'm pretty sure it's what I said it was, just a fibrous condition of the

lungs, nothing malignant.

So I'm not going to die?

You have to live long enough to be able to die.

Oh, you could go on for years.

You could be lucky and live to be hung from a lamppost.

It's funny. I come along thinking this is the day of judgment, and it never is.

Or it always is.

Tell me, out of sheer curiosity, what other jobs have you done?

Apart from the railway?

Apart from the railway, nothing.

I started as a porter. I ended up station master of the Central Station.

Nothing else?

I was in a dyeworks once for about five minutes.

A dyeworks?

When I was young.

We're talking about before the First War now.

Terrible place.

Funny, I thought it was a goner then.

I'd just got engaged.

And I woke up one fine morning.

Felt there was a strange patch on my skin.

Don't come in. Why?

Oh, you can't show me anything new. My husband was in the armed forces.

I'm not sure I like all this coming and going last thing at night.

You need all your energy to get on in life.

We're going to be married.

This room used to be let to a fully-fledged optician.

He was quite alone.

He had diplomas.

I didn't dare tell my fiancée.

And to begin with, I didn't let on to anybody.

I was just hoping it would go away.

Only it didn't.

It got worse.

Does it itch? No.

Funny process, Diane.

Saul had one stare from there down.

Ended up spending all day in the bath.

Slept in it.

That would die.

Went to the board with it.

They just pretended it was something in the family.

Have you reported it?

Diane won't do you any harm.

Does it itch? No, sir. Sore?

No, sir.

Have you been doing something that you shouldn't be doing? No, sir. No, sir,

no, sir.

Sit on the back. Take off your trousers.

Come on.

There's some.

Well, because we're all doctors now.

It's proper things, lovely.

And it isn't to do with the dye?

Well, nobody else has it.

Don't blame the dye.

Blame yourself.

He's only young.

These are cornflowers.

I love blue.

You're insured.

Take this along to the cashiers.

I haven't done anything, sir. What have I done?

We're not ungenerous. You got your full bonus.

There's generally a whip round. Something like that.

I've got me other work people to consider.

Come on, lad.

Have you got that in your locker?

I don't know what he's been doing.

I thought it was simple cleanliness.

I want to ask about insurance.

I never said anything.

It doesn't apply.

Beatrice, it doesn't apply.

When you're young, you don't give your body a thought.

Now I was thinking about nothing else.

Yet it was as if it didn't belong to me.

I wasn't myself anymore.

I'm enjoying this, Mother.

friends once more, Christina.

I think he's old enough to speak for himself, Mother, don't you?

One of the family now.

I had to keep my skin to myself.

I felt like an animal.

Don't rush her, Rosa.

One mouthful at a time.

That's right.

And I hadn't told my fiancée I'd lost my job.

I didn't.

The girl in the office had given me a form.

She said I had a claim.

I had to take the form to the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute on Pollitt

Street.

Gone now, though the building's still there.

That building.

She's coming into the factory now.

Oi! She's at your door. That's your door.

Morning there, doctor.

Out of the way. Out of the way.

Morning. Right, sir.

Oi!

She's got one leg, doesn't she?

It's like a wild beast.

Am I in the right place?

They like you to wait.

Please lift up.

You never want to be first.

You're better off in the middle.

Try and be routine.

I don't even wear my glasses.

You don't want to face anybody remembering this.

These are mine.

I crocheted the cover myself.

That'll be all right today. My friend's on.

He's very refined.

I've seen him in a cab there.

There's the tribunal.

That coat's cashmere.

Next!

Next!

Don't want to see that.

Don't want to see that.

I've seen that.

Well? Nothing else?

Ned!

He's confusing me with someone else.

Why Vienna?

I fancy the change.

Don't we all?

Duspin, John.

Quiet. The weak one.

The fourth floor, Duspin, or the second floor, Duspin? Who are we not friends

with?

404. 404.

Anyway, they're supposed to light work Jews.

Sleepy? Why don't you get sleepy?

Lift and push, lift and push.

How can you get sleepy? It's a skilled job.

But then I made out the safety guard wasn't in position.

It was in position. I mean, I've got little hands.

The guard is meant for a man's hands.

Spins the in and the out.

Stips in the pattern into the cloth.

So naturally it's such me to the cloth.

Door! Door!

Door!

Now, it's possible that your firm will try to put the blame on you.

Me? Yeah.

Just because you're the injured party, it doesn't mean you are not the guilty

party. Oh, no, not me.

You haven't seen me. I'm not here.

Your grade are putting in five.

Ah, my grade.

You were scolded.

Oh. Jan!

Jam. Jam.

You must understand, sir, that jam is not like water.

It spills. No, it... It sticks. I know jam.

I have two bags.

The foreman said I'm going to give you two bags.

Normally, it would only be one, but I'm going to give you two.

How long is the scarf?

I washed it.

Do you want me or not? Some of us are trying to work.

Everybody's putting in. It's for the director.

How much? It's optional.

Rubbish.

Five mark.

Here's four.

I'm not like these other fellows.

I have to look after my money. Excuse me, but aren't you a friend of my

daughter? No.

Didn't she invite you to go on a cycling holiday in the mountains?

No. So the name Rosa means nothing to you? It seems rude to interrupt, but we

appear to be losing sight... Your employer pays, the government pays.

The shop said they are not responsible. Well, they normally do.

What did you do with the ear?

Did you save it?

It's not important.

You realise you're taking a risk, being alone in a room with me?

Women can't keep their hands off me, do you know that?

Only a gesture.

So is that.

Now!

Does it discommode you in any way, having one ear?

Do you wear glasses? Can you or can you not lead a normal life?

And since it is totally apparent that you can, I advise you to go away from

leading.

I was at the opera last night, and it occurred to me... Not here, department.

The motor car.

Here, department.

Potentially a significant accident statistic or not.

Endo. It is my instinctive answer. Do I give it some more?

Do.

Oh, and a hidden department.

Congratulations.

The hand of the most careful operator was bound to be drawn into the cut of

space if it slipped.

In such accidents, usually several joints...

And even whole fingers were severed.

Amen.

My brother-in-law tells me he's starting a factory. Can I help him?

Earrings today?

Do they go right through?

You had a hole dug in your ears.

What courage.

It's my body.

the better you want to see.

You've been in the ward?

Yes, sir. Our old friend the mincing machine.

You stupid fool putting your arm down.

The throat.

It's too long.

The truncheon wouldn't reach.

You have to put your arm down.

Wasn't there a guard on the worm?

Took it up, sir.

Well, then it serves you right then, doesn't it?

In any case, you don't belong here. You should be downstairs in 272.

Just come from there.

Go back.

And if they try and send you somewhere else, say Dr.

Kafka says to say you're not a football.

Yes, sir.

So having fed himself into his machine, we now feed him into ours.

Sir.

Have you noticed how often when claimants are telling you about their

accidents, They smile.

Why do they smile?

They're apologizing.

They feel foolish.

Utterly blameless.

Yet they feel guilty.

Bricks falling on someone's head. Do they ever do anything else?

I say, do they ever do anything else?

Yet another firm trying to make out the fact they had an accident was sheer

accident. Accident.

as we well know, are never an accident.

Give us a point.

Get home, get home!

I thought of Japan.

Bricks don't fall on people's hair.

They have paper houses.

They do, they do. Don't you care, sir? Why is everything so heavy?

This chair.

This desk.

The poor floor carrying the burden.

The sheer weight of Prague.

Dr. Kafka, it's no secret we're losing our head of department.

Elevated to the fifth floor.

Higher things.

A chance for a modest celebration.

A presentation.

Speech, perhaps?

Excuse me, head clerk, but you have a small smut on

your chin.

Oh. Don't be alarmed.

Well, help!

I must go and put my head under a circular saw.

It's my imagination.

Nor do we get more shit than anybody else. Of course.

There are 400 people working in this company.

Since only two of them are Jews and one of them happens to be Dr. Kafka, we get

sent a lot of shit.

It's only natural.

I don't seem to be able to face it.

When did you... When did you have this accident? It wasn't exactly an accident.

I'm ill.

Through work. Well, I'm ill through work. We're all ill through that.

My skin's broken out, look.

No.

We deal in accidents.

You haven't had an accident. I get splashed with the dye. That's an

accident. It happens all the time. So it's not an accident, is it?

But it's fetched my skin up.

This number here means that your firm has a policy that covers factory

premises. It isn't a comprehensive cover for the firm's employees outside those

premises. Well, he doesn't want to run down on the filing system.

Why don't you put your foot on your own desk?

Because I haven't got any scissors.

I'm done.

I'm going to have to refer you back.

It was their problem.

You're not our pigeon.

I ruined it.

It may clear up.

Spread him all the time.

Somebody said I should feed Dr. Kafka.

If he's the doctor, he might know.

Ah, he's not that sort of doctor.

It must be the dye.

What else could it be?

I just got engaged to be married.

Whatever it is, the answer's no.

Anyway, he's gone to look at a sawmill.

No, no.

You should know better than this.

It's a borderline case. He may be interested. Don't be ridiculous.

Of course he'd be interested.

He's got enough on his plate.

You remarked on my new ear.

lovely earring.

I've put it on his desk.

Come back tomorrow.

What I want is an independent medical examination by a specialist.

It must be the dye.

I've put it on his desk.

I just got engaged.

So you keep telling me.

I'd started going to the gym at night.

I didn't want anybody to see my skin.

At the institute, where I did want somebody to see my skin, nobody would

look.

I went again and waited.

You hear that?

Because I can hear a river.

I never used to be able to hear a river.

In fact, well, a river's nice to hear.

But in your own head it isn't.

First thing I'm going to get is a new chair cover.

Delayed concussion.

How long have I been in this department?

I thought it was five years.

I thought it was five years, but it can't be. Because when the head clerk

wants someone to make a presentation to the director, does he ask me? No, he

doesn't. He asks Dr Kafka, who's only been here one year.

So maybe I haven't been here five years. Maybe it only seems like five years.

Maybe I only came here yesterday.

Maybe I don't work here at all.

We'll see about that, because I am now going to start making my present... Lock

it. Show me. Come on.

Lock it.

Lock it.

Lock it.

Well, you don't belong here for a start. I was told.

You mustn't believe what you're told.

Not in this place. I was told this was going to be a job with prospects.

I don't care what you are told. This is a P-406.

It is not our pigeon.

Out. Out.

Out. Out.

You've no business here either. Out.

Out. Out. I'm supposed to see Dr. Kafka.

Dr.

Kafka is a busy man.

Dr. Kafka has factories to inspect.

Dr. Katka has a speech to prepare.

Charles?

I want to see this young man. He's a die-worth of some sort of eczema.

Gone. I just sent him away.

Ah.

He wasn't our responsibility.

I'm sure you're right.

You're always right.

Incidentally, I've been landed with a speech of farewell to the head of

department. I was wondering, could you give me a pointer or two?

Happy to.

How's mother?

She's well.

Very well. Good, good.

About this dye worker, can you retrieve him?

I think I fancy a bit of a promenade myself.

Four-five-two.

Next!

I've got it! I've got it!

I've got it!

I've got it!

I got it.

I can't believe it. I got it.

Four, five, two.

What do we owe this pleasure?

We've lost a claimant.

Inquiry said they'd sent him up here.

I haven't seen him.

You're talking to someone who just received a summons to the fifth floor.

If he surfaces, point him back upstairs, would you?

I'll do the same for you sometime.

Can I have that in writing?

She said, you got that past in the loo? He said, well, you're lucky.

He said, if I'd had to take it off in the theatre, I couldn't have done it

cleaner than that.

And he said, you're fortunate in another respect.

I said, yes.

He said, you're an extrovert.

He said, you've got the right attitude of mine.

I said, I have.

It's a bit unsightly, but I'm not included.

In some respects, the reverse.

More room in the bed, more scope for manoeuvre.

I haven't noticed the wife complaining.

Mind you...

It's a wonder I didn't lose more than a leg. Porting out was no cradle on the

shaft. After I'd had me accident, I said to the foreman, you haven't got a leg to

stand on. He said, you can talk.

He said, they'll claim you were drunk. I said, drunk? Pull the other one.

He said, what other one? I said, precisely.

You have to laugh.

Anyway, last lap.

End in sight.

Where will you go tomorrow?

Where will you go?

Won't know you're born.

It's a way of life.

You're used to people coming and going.

It's our big day. Keep it down.

Keep it down.

Here, here. Sit this side.

More leg room.

I say, this brings back memories.

Eh? I say, this brings back memories.

Oh, my goodness me. I'm wanting a certificate to see the doctor.

What doctor?

Their doctor.

You haven't seen the doctor?

Hey! He hasn't even seen the doctor. He hasn't seen the doctor.

How long have you been coming?

Today. This is your first... Listen, it's taken me six months to get this

far. It's taken me a year.

Not every day.

All I want is to be a normal person.

Keep it down, keep it down.

I went three months, never heard a thing.

You haven't assembled any documents.

You've got to assemble your documents.

I just want to see the doctor. This isn't the doctor.

This is the tribunal. It's the panel, is this? You don't belong here.

What shall I do?

Well, don't ask me.

We don't want them upsetting you. You've no business here. Now, clear off. Go on.

Clear off. We want the whole plane set. Go on. Go on.

How many are there?

Three. One doesn't speak.

Just looks.

Looks? I was missing my birth certificate.

One of them said, could I give them my word that I had been born?

They all laughed.

They laughed.

They said now to try and lead a normal life.

All right, all right.

Just alone.

They always tell you. In the last days, they always tell you.

Now make sure you've all got your documents and that they're in order.

Are you on this list?

Not interested.

Not interested. List only.

Where do you want?

Oh, don't take that in here, yes.

My documents have just gone in.

They're studying them now.

Possibly.

Hello, Teresa.

Their dog's poorly. She's got a lot on her mind. Not sure I shouldn't tell them

I'm here. No, you'll go to the bottom of the pile.

The girl said last week my file was taken out by the assistant manager.

Of course, I know them all here. I'm like one of the family.

Sheila.

Sheila.

I'd like to have worked in a place like this.

Sedentary occupation, but with some coming and going.

Banter. Whip rounds.

Relations between the sexes.

Sat at home is no game, is it?

They're just suggesting the fact. Get off. No, you're young. You don't

understand.

Look, I could be stuck here all day.

Nobody here.

Go and see.

No. I'll wait till I'm called.

There's nobody there.

Look! Don't shout.

There's officers everywhere.

Leave off.

I'm a woman.

I've had a head injury. It's an empty room. Stop it. It's a subject. It's

empty. Patience. Look at it. It's business.

Empty. Look.

It's important.

It's not important.

It's rubbish.

That's wicked.

Wicked. You're not supposed to have this way.

You're my...

Everybody, hey!

You're going in the head!

breaking the left arm, causing widespread abrasions to the chest and

abdomen, the scars from which you can plainly see.

Well, not all that plainly, shall we?

Quite plainly.

Raise your arms again.

Yes.

Yes.

Go on, shall I?

She reports some loss of feeling on her left side.

Of course she does. She's not stupid.

Some daisy general practitioner has probably said to her, do you have any

loss of feeling on your left side?

And lo and behold, she suddenly finds she's got some loss of feeling on her

left side.

The doctor reports there to have been some personality change.

Probably the same doctor.

She's subject to violent changes of mood, incapable of sustained attention.

I don't believe any of this.

I beg your pardon.

Has it ever occurred to you that everyone who comes before this panel

has, prior to their accident, been of a funny and equable disposition, capable

of long periods of sustained attention, unvisited by headaches or indeed any

infirmity at all?

The mind alert, the body in perfect order, a paragon of health.

Take this young woman.

Previously a cheerful soul, she is now said to be anxious and depressed. So,

previously an optimist, she is now a pessimist.

Is that such a bad thing?

One could say that this accident has brought her to her senses rather than

deprived her of them.

She now takes a dim view of the world.

So do I.

She can't keep her mind on the matter in hand.

Nor can I.

She winces when she looks in the mirror. So do I.

She's crying.

So am I.

We cannot compensate people for being cast out of paradise.

All these sheaves of reports are saying is, I didn't know how lucky I was till

this happened.

So now they do know.

They have achieved wisdom.

And a degree of self-knowledge.

They should be paying us, not we, then.

We appear to have a visitor.

What are you doing here?

I want someone to tell me what's wrong with me.

You've no business here.

This is outrageous.

The idea. Get out. Not until someone tells me where to go. Call someone. Call

the doorman.

Doorman.

Matt.

Matt.

Matt, sir.

Matt. Stop it, you animal.

You're not in a farmyard.

Yes, sir.

Thanks.

Let me see that paper.

Come with me. Any excuse to get away from this collective, it is.

I hope you're all word perfect on your personality changes.

It's a wicked world. It's a wicked, wicked world.

I have lost my faith.

Doctor loses faith. Doctor goes way of other doctors.

It just needs one person, just one, to come before that panel and say, Doctor,

since suffering this grievous affliction, I am a new man, a better

person. The loss of my hand has been an education blinded. I can now see,

instead of which, it's how much is it worth.

Doctor! How much do you think this is worth, eh?

How much is whatever you've got worth?

I'm not a doctor anymore. I'm an accountant.

Journey's end.

Ah, the last cheap.

Blessed are the maimed, for they shall be compensated.

Come on.

Sometimes just long to see one single able-bodied person.

Someone who doesn't lack an arm here or a finger there.

Who doesn't pull up their shirt without wanting to reveal some frightful burn.

Somebody normal.

Your lost sheep.

Oh, take a seat. I was here this morning.

I've been all over. I was supposed to see Dr. Kafka. Dr.

Kafka has gone home.

Does that mean I have to come back?

You've reached the beginning.

You're about to start.

You've been allowed to enter the race.

Look, I'm covered in scale.

You're not.

Your face is perfectly normal. Don't exaggerate.

This gives you an appointment with the Institute doctor.

They're having public clinics on Thursdays.

He will look at you and decide if this skin complaint is anything to do with an

accident at work.

I've told you, I haven't had an accident.

So why go on?

Stop now before it's too late.

No new process?

No new chemicals?

Nothing new in your life?

I've just got engaged.

Any accident there?

I'd written to my father.

He was a peasant, a farm labourer in, well, it's now Germany.

He came to Prague.

I think of my father then as an old man, but he was younger than I am now.

He had remedies of his own.

All in all, it's a pretty mixed band, but slanted on the whole in the

direction of injury at work.

Plus some teasers for the people in the fourth year, and also

some interesting examples of occupational disease.

Increasing industrialization means that this field of medicine is bound to

expand.

I imagine that's why many of you are here.

Physical conditions, some of which you will see, take time to declare

themselves. And I would ask you to remember that we are seeing today

casualties of conditions in the industry of 20, even 30 years ago.

I'm a miracle.

I've got a hole in my stomach.

They watch the fluid passing through.

There's not an article written about him.

Show him your article.

And doubtless in 30 or 40 years' time, when I hope I shall be safely tucked

up in my grave, my captain will still be stood here.

Somebody came from Paris to see me.

And they pay.

Nowadays, the mesh may be wide.

But if you believe in progress, which I do not, the mesh will get smaller,

and the number of people suffering from industrial injury will dwindle. But it

won't, of course, because there will be new industries, and new industries mean

new diseases.

You have chosen a wise profession, gentlemen.

Doctors will never be unemployed.

Now could we have our first number please?

Well?

Yes? Is this the form of psoriasis? Wonderful!

Anybody got any brilliant ideas about the etiology?

Patient is in no discomfort.

Affected area is very rich, not sore.

Well, come on, come on. What sort of question should we be asking?

Um, what age is the patient?

How old are you?

Twenty-six. Twenty-six.

Married or single?

Single.

Is it venereal in origin?

Did you get it from a tart?

No. Patient says no.

Patient probably right.

Well? Could it be nervous in origin?

Are you asking me or are you asking the patient?

We know what he does. He works and die works.

But what sort of fellow is he?

Is he nervous, highly strung?

Cheerful? Not cheerful?

Look, what are we supposed to be doing here? Who are you? I thought you were

supposed to be a medical student. What is it?

What have I done?

Give me something.

Give me something for it!

Stop it!

It's all over my body!

Why?

Some of you might say that there is nothing wrong with this patient.

Once upon a time, he met with a slight accident at work.

Is she entitled to this? She wonders.

And the wondering turns to worrying as she begins to lie awake at night

suffering from headaches.

She is increasingly unhappy.

And so begins her quest for compensation. But for what? Not for the

injury, for she scarcely suffered one.

And yet she's not malingering, for the headaches are real.

And to those of you who say, there is no injury, therefore there can be no

compensation, she can say, but I was not like this before my accident.

I had no quest.

Looking for what is wrong with me is what is wrong with me.

The good doctor didn't want you to feel left out.

And the cigar?

In my four districts, people fall off the scaffolding as if they were drunk.

Or they fall into the machines.

All the beams topple.

All embankments give way. All ladders slide.

Whatever people carry up falls down. Whatever they hand down, they stumble

over.

And I have a headache.

Do you work here?

This is a terrible place.

It's a place of torture.

One has to do something.

I need your papers.

For your file.

I don't want money!

I want it to be given a name.

How can I ever get rid of it if it doesn't have a name?

Voila. An accident.

The director guards us, the workers, of the Workers' Accident Institute against

our own institutional accidents.

And I don't mean falling over the holes in the linoleum on the bottom corridor.

Maintenance, please note.

I mean blindness, genuinely.

Deafness to a proper appeal.

And hardness of heart. These are our particular professional risks for which

there are no safety guards, no grids, no protective clothing.

Only a scrupulous and vigilant human.

A toast, then, to the benevolent umpire in our absurd games,

our firm but kindly father to whom, without fear, we can always turn, as we

do now, and say, Herr Director.

Of course he can talk.

But I can talk.

You haven't heard me talk.

Haven't I?

Not in a formal situation.

Does that make a difference?

I'd have told him.

I'd have used the opportunity to let them know exactly what's wrong with this

place. Yes.

Yes?

The dye worker.

Not again.

Really? Silence.

Please, sit down.

I've been told you're kind.

I've been told you're the one to see.

They say you're a human being.

No.

I do a very good imitation of a human being.

You're harder to see than anybody.

There has to be a procedure.

A system.

Is that so terrible?

What did you want to say to me?

There is nothing to say. It is a hopeless case.

People coming in wanting money.

I don't want money.

Nobody ever does.

I sometimes wonder what they think they're doing here. It comes as such a

shock. You mention money to me when I've lost my precious fingers.

All my treasured auburn hair got up in smoke and you ask me how much it's

worth.

Some things are beyond money.

Really?

I've yet to find them.

We'd all rather have our health than the money.

Correction. We'd all rather have our health and the money.

You are asking for a justice that doesn't exist in the world.

And not only you, more people.

More people every year.

A man works in the carding room of a cotton mill.

Dust everywhere.

The air.

Dust.

Taken ill.

Examined by the company doctor.

Unfit for work. Discharged.

Nothing unusual in that.

But then... somebody decides to put in a P-48.

A claim for compensation.

Just as you did.

Not applicable, either of them. Not accidental. Quite.

But bear with me.

Take this mill worker.

No beam has fallen on his head.

No bottle has exploded in his eye. He has not got his shirt caught in the

shaft and been taken round. All that has happened is that he has been inhaling

cotton dust for some years.

And day by day this...

Cotton dust has crept into his lungs, but so slowly, so gradually, that it

cannot be called an accident.

But suppose our lungs were not internal organs.

Suppose they were not locked away in the chest.

And suppose, further, they were not made of flesh, but of glass.

Or something like glass, not yet invented, something pliable.

And thus, the effect of each breath could be seen.

The deposit of each intake of air calculated, weighed even.

What would we say then?

As we saw the dust...

Accumulate. The passages clog.

The galleries close down.

And cell by cell, these lungs hardened, withered, died.

Hmm?

But that still wouldn't be an accident.

You can't conduct an insurance company on suppositions like that.

Can you?

This man has no claim because he is suffering from a condition.

But isn't a condition the result of many small accidents that we cannot see or

record?

So he's living.

Or dying.

There is no alternative but to breathe.

And this man.

A young man.

So regularly doused in dye.

He has begun to grow a second skin.

Isn't that an accident?

A long, slow accident.

People will be wanting compensation for being alive next.

I do understand.

What good is that to me?

You can't do anything.

You're worse than them, not better.

You say you understand.

Well, if you understand and you don't help, you're wicked.

You're evil.

Don't speak like that to Dr Kafka.

He has a university degree.

I don't want money.

I'm not offering you money.

I know the factory that is starting.

It will be in a month or two.

This is a terrible place.

Is it?

I always forget that. I find it almost cosy.

Then I'm just an official. I'm accustomed to office air.

If you cannot find a job, I may be able to help.

Don't expect anything too wonderful. It's very, very rudimentary. Well, one

factory is very much like another.

But what am I telling you?

You've got expertise.

You know about factories.

You've seen plenty.

It's not as if I'm asking you to go into something blindfold.

And here, shipments could come in and out.

You see?

You see?

It's ideal.

I know I can succeed, Franz.

Do you ever have that feeling?

Only when I'm very depressed.

See you in the office!

This is something to cough about.

Three more orders this morning, I'll run off my feet.

So, you're still interested in the job?

Yes, very much so.

You look well. Yes, I'm better.

My skin's cleared completely.

A miracle.

Why is that, do you think?

I don't know.

I've never been so well.

This is my fiancée.

Let me show you

So what do you think you're producing here?

Building materials.

Mainly asbestos.

Thank you.

You saved my life.

It's so long ago.

Do you think it may have been that factory?

It's possible.

Who knows?

I was happy working there.

Though it was only for a year or two.

The place went bankrupt.

They say no good deed goes unpunished.

He worked there too.

Dr Kapka, part-time.

I suppose the same thing could have happened to him.

You weren't to know.

He wasn't to know.

You breathed, that's all you did wrong.

You breathed in the wrong place.

I have a feeling he died.

But he was a Jew, so he would have died anyway.

I know the names.

They're so fancy good.

I bought some slippers there once.

I wonder how long they're going to leave that body up there.

I heard him.

battering at some door last night, begging to be let in. Somebody was after

him.

And the door was open. He thought he was safe.

And they were there first.

Ah.

Take care.