Original subtitles

(wind rushing)

(a distant, muffled report)

(distant rumbling)

(a distant report)

(muffled report, a brief intake of breath)

(exhale)

(♪ a woman's voice hums, tense)

(humming fades ♪)

(♪ tense humming, continuing in waves)

(Narrator) And so it came to pass in those days of the first great war,

which was to shake the land for decades to come,

that Rose resolved to turn her back upon the soldier's life,

and though her story did not begin there,

it nonetheless took a grave turn.

(distant whooping)

(♪ melodious humming, continuing)

(little bells)

(whooping)

(whooping fades)

(melodious humming ends ♪)

(Bailiff) All is in order.

Is aught missing? - (Bailiff) Not so far as I can see.

You are in possession of this document. That means the inheritance may be claimed.

Is the master acquainted with the land?

(Rose) Yes. As a boy I spent two summers there with my mother.

After my father passed, we found gracious shelter at the estate.

It was when the little chapel caught fire. The lightning struck it clean through.

The farmstead has long lain empty.

Wherefore did the master only now resolve to come forward?

The tidings never reached me. A soldier I have been.

Where?

In Brabant.

Ten years.

(Old Farmer) And your mother?

Dead as well.

All of them now.

(cart rattling)

(ox groaning)

(Man) Gee up!

Giddy up! Gee up!

(Narrator) As that same day was no longer deemed fit for an inspection,

it was agreed they would set out together upon the following morn,

to inspect the estate.

(footsteps)

(footsteps, leaves rustling)

The livestock was divided up. Among the village.

It would have perished otherwise.

(Big Farmer) It is good land,

but it demands all of a man, for but the smallest yield.

And for that, a man must know his business, or better leave it be.

As a soldier, the master fought for the land.

That does not mean he is equal to the struggle with it.

You see, there is much to be done,

before the real work can even begin.

It is not every man's calling. There is no shame in that.

I would gladly buy the land from you. At a good price.

And I would gladly stay.

To settle, at last.

To try my fortune in this splendid parish.

(Bailiff) In the coming days we can settle the formalities and sign the documents.

(Rose) Yes.

(♪ bright humming, in waves)

(Narrator) A first arrival was accomplished.

(♪ melodious humming, continuing)

And though Rose found no one to raise a glass with her,

her money was gladly taken.

(♪ humming continuing)

(humming fades ♪)

(fire crackling)

(panting)

This is the bullet, here.

Went through my mouth here.

It is quite caved in.

It is not only my face — everything has a new shape now.

(Young Farmhand) In the village they call you "the soldier."

And

that you are an odd fellow. - (Old Farmhand) Be quiet.

(birds chirping)

(Young Farmhand) That you carry something mysterious about you. - I told you to be quiet.

(Congregation) ♪ Hallowed be Thy name

♪ Thy word keep pure among us

♪ That we too may live in holiness

♪ Worthily according to Thy name

♪ Protect us, Lord, from false teaching

♪ Convert the poor misguided folk

♪ May Thy kingdom come in this time

♪ And thereafter in eternity.

(Narrator) What is a life in deceit and lies?

There is no heroism in it,

only compulsion and want, and ever on one's guard.

And can such a life be called freedom?

(breathing heavily)

(groaning)

(cracking)

(Narrator) Some say: time brings counsel.

Others: the Lord giveth to His own in sleep.

Say what one will,

never had Rose slept so soundly as on that night.

And God came the very next day.

(wind rushing loudly)

(Rose, calling) What is it?

The storm has blown our fences away. And the livestock has scattered.

Perhaps we might drive the sheep in here with you?

(groans) Aye. (calls) Come, lend a hand!

(storm whistling)

(distant shouts)

(a scream of terror)

(cries of terror)

(screams, continuing)

(groaning with effort)

(distant screaming, continuing)

(agonized screams, loud snarling)

Away!

(screams)

(loud snarling)

(agonized snarling)

(storm rushing)

(distant screaming)

Hey!

Here!

(muffled voices)

(storm rushing, continuing)

(Rose) Heave!

(Narrator) The she-bear was found dead in the forest upon the morrow.

The flesh had spoiled.

But from the hide,

in Rose's honour, they fashioned a cloak, a cap, and a collar.

From the soldier, the odd fellow, the strange heir,

a bear-slayer had arisen,

who need no longer contend with the old order,

but had written her own story into that of the village.

What, then, might not yet come to pass?

And though God shows Himself but seldom, or too dimly, in the things of every day,

time passed visibly over the land.

(♪ bright humming)

A year had passed since her arrival,

and a mighty spirit of enterprise had come over Rose.

Of expansion, of making the farm greater, she thought,

of surplus, and of profit too.

(♪ bright humming, continuing in waves)

(insect buzzing)

(birds chirping)

(bright humming fades ♪)

It is good to see the land thriving again.

I did not think you capable of it.

(Rose) Nor did I.

Each day I stand before this wonder of being here.

I could never imagine a tomorrow, before.

What might come, what might be.

I was far too occupied with surviving the day.

(birds chirping)

And now,

for the first time, how grand and how fair.

And what joy it gives me,

to create, to think of all one might yet do.

(sniffles)

To think of all one might yet build. Or raise, or...

And for that, one needs this land.

It is a beginning.

Land, though, has a value other than hard coin.

Coin you give but once in trade for something. The land bestows upon you every year.

Like the womb of woman.

No.

The brook I would not sell.

(sniffles)

But I shall make you a proposal,

how you may come by your patch of earth, while all remains as it was for me.

Five daughters have I. They eat the hair from my head.

(♪ gentle humming, continuing)

(Narrator) Much had Rose accomplished thus far.

For that, she had been forced to school herself in discipline,

in strict denial.

Every single day.

Had to go without, in order to demand.

To renounce, in order to receive.

To conceal herself, in order to be.

But,

once necessity has been satisfied,

the wish for more soon follows.

For greed is a drunkenness.

It makes a man believe all things are his due,

and justifies itself by itself alone.

It knows no bound.

That which is without measure is greed, that which is without aim or discipline.

Emptier than empty a barrel cannot be,

yet to overflowing it is easily brought.

(gentle humming ends ♪)

(Big Farmer) This is Suzanna.

Of unblemished name,

God-fearing,

skilled in every womanly labour.

She tended her mother unto death.

Endured much suffering.

(he clears his throat)

(Big Farmer's Wife) That is what she has.

(distant bird calls)

(whispers) He has a strange face.

(whispering) Hold your tongue. - Be still.

My late wife began it.

She laboured even in childbed, upon each one's dowry.

But she was weak. - Leave it.

Very weak.

Long abed.

Well?

The gentleman is minded to court you.

I am willing to give you unto him.

(loud) And you — are you willing?

(♪ solemn chapel music, continuing)

(Man) Gee up, gee up!

(Man) Giddy up!

(insect buzzing)

(bells ringing)

(Man) Giddy up, gee up!

(bells fall silent)

(chapel music fading ♪)

(Pastor) The Lord bless you and keep you.

(thunder rumbling)

(Rose) Take the cow!

(thunder rumbling)

(Rose groaning)

(Rose groaning)

(Rose) Let go!

(Suzanna groaning)

(distant thunder)

Away!

(Rose sighs)

(rain pattering, muffled)

(Rose groaning)

Tomorrow we shall all become better acquainted.

(repeated clicking)

(clicking quickens)

(door closes)

(clicking ceases)

Will you not see to the fire?

(rapid clicking)

(hesitant) Shall I?

I can try, so the clothes may dry.

Or the master? Perhaps the master is more skilled at it in any case.

(sighs)

The basket with what was left from the wedding — did we leave that by the cart as well?

I know not.

Let us thank the good Lord that these past days were plentiful,

and go to bed hungry.

...that Thou hast graciously kept me this day

and I beseech Thee, forgive me all my sins.

For I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things, into Thy hands.

May Thy holy angel be with me,

that the wicked foe may find no more power over me.

Amen.

Of all things

I prize most your purity.

It is my wish to preserve it for a long while.

(birds chirping)

(sniffles)

(insect buzzing)

(birds chirping)

(insect buzzing)

(cackling)

(Young Farmhand) Come!

Gee up.

Gee up.

(rumbling)

(Rose groaning)

Nothing has been damaged.

As far as I can see. It will suffice to make us a home.

A fair one.

Aye.

Will you not sing us a little song to mark the day?

Aye.

Come now! - I know not what.

Anything at all. Sing.

(Suzanna, softly) ♪ Commit all thy ways - Here!

♪ And all that grieves thy heart

♪ To the most faithful care

♪ Of Him who... (pauses)

♪ ...rules the heavens

♪ He who gives the clouds, air and winds

♪ Their paths, their course and way

♪ He will also find the paths

♪ Whereon thy foot may walk

(sniffles)

♪ In the Lord thou must trust

♪ If thou wouldst prosper well

♪ Unto His work thou must look

♪ If thy work...

♪ ...is to stand

(sniffles)

♪ Through worry and through grieving

♪ And through self-wrought pain

♪ God will take nothing from thee

♪ It must be gained through prayer

(Suzanna) Are you going?

To the village.

I have promised the pastor to help with reading and writing.

Some have come forward who would gladly try.

Can you find no work to do here?

I can.

But now that I have given my word?

Perhaps I might accompany you.

It is so still here.

(Rose) That is your name.

Those are five letters which then repeat.

Would you try it?

S...

Very slowly, like this...

S...

(♪ bright humming)

(humming fades ♪)

(♪ bright humming, continuing in waves)

(conversations inaudible)

(♪ bright humming, continuing)

(leaves rustling, conversations inaudible)

(♪ bright humming, continuing)

(cart rumbling)

Ha!

(♪ ethereal humming, continuing)

(♪ humming continuing)

(humming ends ♪)

Come along, then. - Wait.

(Big Farmer) I wished to ask whether Suzanna conducts herself well.

Whether she is obedient in all things. Whether she acquits herself well.

Or whether she refuses you?

Or whether you find her loathsome in her bearing.

Nay, nay! She is just as you described her unto me.

Better still.

Do you know how it is with the breeding of beasts?

The bull that will not mount is exchanged.

We have so much labour that I give no thought

to the breeding of the animals as well.

Marriage is a contract which you have entered into.

And it is fulfilled only when it is consummated.

Best do it straight away, else all is null and void.

And so too every covenant.

Like the land upon which you stand.

You need not trouble yourself. All is as it should be.

(clicking, continuing)

(clicking ceases)

What is it?

Turn around.

(Suzanna coughing)

(Suzanna gasps)

(muffled groaning)

(Rose) What is it?

(muffled hammering)

Will you come down for a moment?

(Suzanna) I have conceived.

How?

Conceived.

(giggles)

It is quite certain.

A butterfly came through the window just now, and settled upon my belly.

That is the sign.

The same befell Saint Veronica.

(Suzanna giggles)

(Farmhand) It is early yet, but I would congratulate you on the blessing.

(Suzanna) Come now! Come!

(Suzanna giggles)

(Suzanna) ♪ At early morn, when cocks do crow

♪ We march out through the gate

♪ And with enamoured glances

♪ The maids peer after us

♪ Past the bush we wander...

For the first while, I shall take the child unto me,

but always lying there in the chest, that cannot go on forever.

Why the good meat in the soup today?

It is a feast day, after all.

(slurps)

We would have to build an addition.

Fell timber.

We would have to make an opening in the parlour. - Outwards.

(slurps)

There by the wall would serve well.

(Rose) Come along, then!

(door closes)

(Suzanna sighs)

One cannot hope for a child each time one performs the marital duty.

We shall wait and see.

(Suzanna) But it is so.

Well?

What says the father? - Who?

(Suzanna giggles)

The father.

(chair rumbling)

(agitated breathing)

(door slams)

(♪ gentle humming)

(Narrator) A child came into the world, lively and sound,

though for Rose, unexpectedly,

and in the eyes of some, weeks too soon.

(Pastor speaking a blessing)

(♪ singing softly)

(Narrator) And though Suzanna readily settled into her role as mother,

Rose's fatherly feelings were confounding, and of a more tangled nature.

(♪ gentle humming)

(humming ends ♪)

(baby gurgling repeatedly)

(♪ gentle humming, continuing)

(Narrator) Yet all had changed for the better.

For in the eyes of the community, Rose had risen once more.

She had made the land to bloom, as she had the flower of her wife.

And should no further child follow,

Rose had already fulfilled the sole purpose of existence,

the sole service owed unto the community, which is:

reproduction.

Whatever others may claim.

And yet it is not always, nor of necessity, the great events

that bring forth change.

Small things, too, may work great consequence.

Like the beating of a butterfly's wing

or the sting of a bee.

(humming ends ♪)

(gasping)

(baby gurgling)

(baby wailing)

I thought you were in the stable?

He is cutting teeth and cries all the day. - (baby wailing)

Now he has woken again. - (baby crying)

(Rose breathing heavily)

(baby wailing, continuing)

What is that by your eye?

(quietly) Nothing. - And there upon your hand?

(Suzanna) What?

(distant baby screaming)

Come quickly! Come!

(in panic) Come!

Heave!

(baby crying, continuing)

(Rose gasping)

(Suzanna) There! - (Rose panting)

The sting is yet within.

(Maid 1) And here as well.

(Rose whimpering)

(Suzanna) Help me pull him from his breeches.

Pull!

Pull!

Pull!

(Suzanna groaning)

(baby crying, continuing)

There are more.

Water must be boiled! Run to the well!

Why stand you there? Run!

Take the second cauldron too!

(cauldron clattering)

(baby screaming, distant)

(baby wailing softly)

(baby gurgling)

(baby gurgling)

(trembling breath)

(door closes, baby wailing)

(baby crying, Suzanna sobbing)

(footsteps, rumbling, Suzanna falls silent)

(knocking)

(knocking)

(Old Farmhand) What ails the master?

(baby crying, Suzanna sobbing)

(Suzanna falls silent)

(baby screaming, distant)

(Old Farmhand, quietly) Hold your tongue. Hold your tongue!

Get to the stable.

To the stable!

Everyone to the stable.

To the stable!

In here.

(Suzanna) He is gravely ill.

He must rest. (sniffles)

None may go unto him.

Not if we would not fear for his life.

All else shall continue in its accustomed course.

So has it been agreed.

(sniffles)

You maids, too, shall come unto the fields.

Until the Saviour restores the master's health, for which we now would pray,

I shall steer our fortunes.

So wills the master.

We go forth and wander from one year to the next.

We live and we flourish, from the old unto the new.

Speak Thy gentle blessing upon all our ways.

Let Thy sun of grace shine upon the great and the small alike.

Graciously succour all the sick...

(fire crackling)

(gasping)

(whimpering)

(whimpering)

(sobbing)

(Suzanna) Who are you?

(sniffles)

(♪ a maid hums a song, continuing)

(♪ maid humming, continuing)

(humming ends ♪)

(baby wailing)

(sighs)

It is best that I go.

(Suzanna) Aye, it were best.

But you cannot.

You are weak.

You would fall behind the next tree.

And there another would find you.

And then?

And then?

The child is yet bound unto me.

The next few weeks, haply half a year.

Then it will grow easier.

When the roads are clear of snow and ice,

then may you go.

Till then there shall be ample time to invent a tale.

(baby gurgling)

(♪ ethereal humming)

(humming ends ♪)

(♪ ethereal humming, continuing in waves)

(Narrator) That night Rose spoke until the break of day.

Timidly at first.

And then there was no staying her.

She told of a childhood in the orphan-house,

of how it came to pass that she first put on breeches,

and of every attempt thereafter,

spared not herself the war nor the soldier's life,

spared neither herself nor Suzanna.

She told her all.

Even how it came to be that in another man's stead

she had claimed an inheritance.

(♪ ethereal humming, continuing)

Gee up!

(Narrator) And how good it was to speak.

Further.

(Narrator) Oft had she pictured surrendering herself.

Yet even she was astonished at the relief

of no longer bearing the burden of her secrets alone.

Only one thing would she not surrender:

her true name.

Lest this Suzanna, at some unfitting moment, let it slip her lips by mischance.

(ethereal humming ends ♪)

(scrubbing)

(Suzanna) What do you there?

I came to look in.

How fares the master?

Ill. Go within.

Nay, do not. - I have need of air.

Here. I shall open the window for you.

Why stand you gaping? - I can stir, with this arm it serves.

Back to your labour.

Is all well with the sow? - Aye, she will yield much meat.

Back to your labour.

Come.

(Pastor and congregation) ♪ We thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ

♪ That Thou hast died for us

♪ And through Thy precious blood

♪ Hast made us righteous and good before God

♪ And we beseech Thee, true man and God:

♪ Through Thy five holy wounds so red

♪ Redeem us from eternal death

♪ And comfort us in our last distress

♪ Preserve us too from sin and shame

♪ And reach to us Thy almighty hand

♪ That in the cross we may be patient...

(♪ ethereal humming, continuing in waves)

Come!

Come, I say!

(ethereal humming ends ♪)

(baby grumbling)

Are you coming?

Whose child is that?

(cheering)

(baby wailing)

(Suzanna giggling)

(groaning)

You will not long remain alone once I am gone.

(baby wailing)

What?

Your father will not suffer it.

(baby wailing)

He will marry you to the first man who comes, as he did with me.

A stranger.

You feel yourself mistress now, do you not?

Yet you are not your own.

(baby wailing)

Perhaps...

Perhaps one need not find a new tale. Perhaps ...(clears throat)

all may remain as it is.

(snorts)

We are acknowledged, you and I.

As a household.

That is what we are unto the others.

(baby gurgling)

That is what grants us freedom.

It need not be otherwise.

(baby bawling, muffled)

(baby wailing)

(baby gurgling)

One need not decide at once. - (baby wailing)

The bed wherein you sleep above,

is it good?

The servants should have a house of their own.

At the meadow's end. At a fitting distance.

And a tub would be needed. - (baby wailing)

It will not do for you to wash secretly in the wood.

Or a bathhouse, for in the parlour it is perilous too.

(baby wailing)

And reading and writing,

you shall teach me that.

(Narrator) Had Rose and Suzanna resolved to decide naught at once,

yet all had already been changed.

(♪ gentle humming)

More upright they walked,

freer with one another, more independent.

And perhaps for that very reason more turned toward each other.

For the first time.

All this had come unlooked for.

As only the spoken word can usually bring to pass.

Yet still more was to befall that day.

(Suzanna) What is it?

(Narrator) A maid had not returned with the others at the appointed hour

unto the estate.

And was not to be brought back until the following day by her father and her brothers.

We combed the forest the whole night through, and were full of care.

I would have sent the two of them to the pond, and was myself bound for the village.

(Father) We knew it not.

Only today was she discovered; she had hidden herself away. So we set out at once.

(Suzanna) Why did you run off? And make us all sick with worry?

(quietly) Hold your tongue. - (Son) But he has small hands.

I will have no gossip.

(Father) Beg your master's pardon and entreat him to take you back.

(Rose) With me it is good to live and to labour.

No worse than anywhere else. You never once complained.

But I shall not keep you.

I thank you for bringing your child to me. But if she runs off again...

(Father) I pray you...

(Rose)... and we must again set out in dread, leaving all lying and standing?

The master is no master. - (Rose) Eh?

The master is no master! - Let her speak!

(sobbing)

Down below, he is said to be like a woman! - (Father) You will be silent.

Is this the whole of the nonsense? - I know what I saw.

(Suzanna) When?

When would you have seen that? - When the master was ill.

What wild talk is this? No one was with him.

At the very beginning. - I was quite alone with him!

We drew off his breeches and the stings were up to here.

(Father) What could she have seen? - How should I know?

You are surely not right in the head. That was days ago, and you come only now?

I said it at once. You laughed at me.

(Suzanna) Lies!

(Maid 1) You forbade me to speak. For no speaking is possible in this house.

Lies! Lies! - All in secret. Whoever asks is himself the troublemaker.

Lies, lies, lies! - (Rose) Suzanna, get you into the house.

And yesterday in the church? And all before our very eyes.

(sniffles)

(Rose) Your daughter is very young. More child still than one would wish to believe.

And speaks, I hope, of things whereof she cannot yet know aught.

We must to our labour, if we would bring in the harvest before the dark.

We have lost half a day!

We are two hands short now. I hope the loss remains small.

Your sons here — do they work for my father-in-law?

(Father) As do I.

Mhm.

Then let us keep all of this among ourselves. So that no harm comes to you either.

(loud) Yes?

(♪ ethereal humming, continuing in waves)

(exhausted breath)

(exhausted breath)

(birds chirping)

(a bird chirping)

Your sister — does she yet need work?

(Maid 2) Aye.

Well, then...

A blessed night's rest.

A blessed night's rest.

A blessed night's rest.

(door closes)

(crickets chirping)

(door closes)

(distant voices)

Now.

What else?

(Son) It is simple. We shall settle it here, upon the spot.

Settle what? - (Big Farmer's Wife) You shall furnish the proof.

That I am a man? - (Big Farmer's Wife) Aye.

And the heir to this land. - Not an impostor.

By doing what, then?

Lowering my breeches? Showing you my cock?

It would be done in a moment, and the matter settled.

(voice rising) This house here — is it real?

The soil there, the land,

the money,

the good wage you have received, doubled at Christmas — is that a fraud?

And that something always remains for you from our yield?

Or you.

The alphabet I taught you, from A to Z.

The words you now can write, the contracts you now can read,

so no one cheats you again, so you never receive less than your due —

is that too a fraud?

That you lost your arm — is that real?

(loud) That you stand here now, that you are yet alive — is that a fraud?

And here, the bullet. Here, look you upon it!

And my flesh?

I cannot see myself. I beg you, help me!

That I had my face shot to pieces for the land and for you!

Is that too the truth? Or is there nothing there, all smooth and fair, and only fraud?

I know it not. Nor do you.

Perhaps it is therefore better that each go home and think for himself

what that may mean: fraud.

La-la-la... - (laughter)

(Man) Hey, hey!

Have I ever seen your cocks?

(shrill) Do I ask you after them?

All this we may gladly do. But then I would have it done officially!

Then I would see from every one of you what you bear between your legs — man and wife alike.

Your cock, and yours, and your father's!

Let us fetch the bailiff, let us make it official!

Provided, of course, you can afford the document!

The pastor shall proclaim it straightway in the church, better still from the pulpit!

Fetch the bailiff!

You go! And you two go with him, so that in the end none may say the bailiff was bribed.

And the rest of you may gladly keep your seat outside my door

and guard it, so that you need not forgo the proof you so desire.

Before I must look upon your flesh, I would never again behold your faces!

(breathing agitatedly)

(door slams)

There is yet another door yonder.

(Narrator) The bailiff is said to have been no less astonished

at the matter wherewith he had been approached.

Yet not even his presence could, upon that day,

bear witness to the demanded proof.

The tidings of these events had shaken all to the core.

The community, which had taken Rose into its midst,

saw itself betrayed and deceived.

Through Rose's deceitful deed it saw itself dishonoured, defiled, and sullied.

What they now urgently demanded was the great example,

whereby they might cleanse themselves again.

And which therefore must needs be set.

(baby gurgling)

(a bird chirping)

Upon the third day of their wandering,

it came to pass that certain adventurers succeeded in tracing the two fugitives,

to bring them back unto the village.

(Rose) Rose.

(Suzanna) Rose. - Aye.

(Rose) Rose.

(sobbing)

(Narrator) Yet among the learned men of the land too, a quarrel had arisen,

as to who was fit to pass judgment in so curious a case as this.

For that very reason, three more months were to pass

before Rose could be given a proper trial.

The bandage.

The horn.

The thorn.

No.

The examinations have established

that the accused is a sound woman.

There is naught of the male about her.

Her clitoris is of common size.

With it she could not have penetrated her so-called wife.

Semen, however, has very evidently flowed in the other direction,

since the accused is with child.

She is a woman

and has long presented herself as a man.

(Rose) Aye.

And the inheritance?

To whom does it belong?

He was a comrade, a friend.

(clears throat) He spoke of it often,

of returning after the war, and of how it would be then.

But he fell.

His leg was shot from him, and he bled to death.

So I have his belongings.

(footsteps)

The document as well.

I thought

it a pity that none should have it and make use of it.

We were as brothers.

And this?

(Rose) Aye.

Where had she that?

(Rose) In the war as well.

At times, we too, upon command,

were made to show the vanquished who was master.

Upon command? - Aye.

It was folly.

And brutal.

Perilous too for me, had I not joined in.

And so I had that done to me.

None marked a thing.

(Judge) And your supposed wife now?

She knew nothing. No guilt attaches to her. I pray you, she must be set free.

(Judge) But from whom, then, is her child?

And this?

(Rose) I too was shown who was master. - Who?

I know not, there were four of them.

(Judge) Wherefore did she act as she did?

I thought

it might serve.

(Judge) Hm.

What?

That I might live thus.

(Judge) As a man?

Nay, I would not be a man.

(Judge) What then?

There was more freedom in the breeches.

And they are but a strip of cloth.

So I put on the breeches.

(Judge) Who granted her leave to do so?

Eh — no one.

(Judge) Ah, no one?

I did.

She made herself, then.

Community exists only with rules.

And rules are determined by facts.

Yet betwixt her legs no male member was found,

but rather a hole.

One may wish for the impossible, but one cannot live it.

And in that she would live the impossible, she set herself against reality.

And against necessity, which for her consists

in following the dictates of her own body.

She raised herself above the law that first makes life in common possible.

And when she set herself against reality,

against necessity, and against the laws,

she set herself against the community too.

That is what she chose.

That is the possibility of living which she took for herself as freedom.

(Judge) Did she ever believe it herself?

That it would succeed?

Feels she no guilt?

He who is guilty before the community

is no longer a part of it.

He must be removed.

For a time:

into the dungeon.

For ever:

unto death.

But perhaps ...(laughs) no bounds are set upon her?

Perhaps she will grow herself a pair of wings

and simply fly from us?

Or holds she that for impossible?

(locking sounds)

(sighs)

(Bailiff) The sentence has been pronounced.

The sword.

When?

(Bailiff) As soon as she is brought to bed.

No harm shall come to the child, for that were against God's commandments.

She shall remain here until her confinement.

Concerning Suzanna,

judgment has likewise been passed:

the sack and the river. - (Rose sniffles)

The sentence was straightway carried out.

She is said not to have borne it well.

And caused her executioner much toil and much trouble,

and herself much agony.

(Rose screams)

(Rose screams)

(locking sound)

(Pastor) Merciful Father,

in the face of death I confess unto Thee my sin and my transgression,

which I have committed in thought, in word, and in deed.

They grieve me from my heart, and I repent of them.

I beseech Thee, for the sake of the bitter suffering and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ,

that Thou wilt be gracious unto me, a sinful mortal, and forgive my shameful deeds for evermore,

that I may be worthy to enter into Thy house.

Merciful Father,

in the face of death I confess unto Thee my sin and my transgression...

They sell it on every corner.

Three alone upon the way hither.

They shout themselves hoarse,

and cannot pocket the kreuzers fast enough.

This is what is told of her.

Was it thus?

(Narrator) In the last weeks of her life Rose had found herself yet one more task,

which she was determined to bring unto its end.

Had others decided her life for her,

Rose would not let her story be taken from her;

she had begun to compose it herself.

For no other was it meant, purely for herself.

And having come unto the point of her present, she wrote herself beyond it,

bestowed upon herself a fantasy of how it might also have been.

For impossibility is but a word.

And words could be altered.

Once uttered, they are in the world,

they are reality and bring reality in their train.

All this passed through Rose's mind,

whilst elsewhere it was being debated how to part Rose's head from her body.

(footsteps)

(Bailiff) The prisoner has expressed the wish to rehearse her execution.

We have agreed to grant her this wish.

And you shall lend a hand.

And...

one, two, three, four, five.

Forgive me, God, forgive me, King,

forgive me, people.

And one, two, three.

Forgive me, God, forgive me, King, forgive me, people.

And one, two, three, four, five.

Forgive me, God, forgive me, King, forgive me, people.

To the scaffold.

Confesses she her guilt?

(quietly) Aye.

Then pays she her executioner with the coin.

And receives, as purification, her punishment.

(baby screaming, continuing)

(baby screams, muffled)

Hold still.

(locking sounds)

(door rattling)

(quiet footsteps)

(Bailiff) Since all has run its course, the execution shall be upon the morrow.

(muffled baby screams)

Will she see the child once more beforehand? - Nay.

It may yet be brought unto her.

(Rose sighs)

(baby screaming, continuing)

It is not that I am heartless, or hard.

It is for the little child's sake.

It is not only I who gaze upon its face. It too gazes upon mine.

But it must have no image of me, lest it must needs seek me out hereafter in the world.

(Pastor praying in Latin)

(Narrator) The executioner's first stroke fell amiss

and bit into Rose's shoulder.

The second then struck true.

Take, and eat.

(Narrator) After her death, Rose's body was hewn apart and burned

and the ashes strewn in an unknown place.

Lest she remain in any memory.

Today I thought we are not of God at all.

We but imagined ourselves and invented ourselves.

Then I was quite calm and said:

This far have I come,

and I have done what I could.

(♪ gentle ethereal humming, continuing)

Subtitles: Way Film GmbH Adaptation: Gerrit Haas, Danja Prahl