Original subtitles

This film was inspired by the lives of two women:

Mania Vilbouchevich Shohat, a Russian revolutionary...

...active in the intellectual circles of Berlin...

...a founding member of the Kibbutz and Israeli Labor Movements

Else Lasker-Schuler, a German Expressionist poet...

...a friend of Thomas Mann and Wassily Kandinsky...

...who fled from Berlin...

...and died in Jerusalem in 1945

- Freedom of thought! Freedom of speech!

- The individual liberates himself!

- Modern man, between total freedom and total destruction!

- Nations, wake up!

Break your chains!

- The choice is in our hands!

- Down with capitalism and its lackeys!

- You dispossessed, rise up!

Strike down the forces of repression!

- Freedom of thought! Freedom of speech!

- Let us raise the sword of Revolution!

- Working men and women, wake up!

- Strike down the forces of repression!

- Down with capitalism and its lackeys!

Wake up!

- And what do you do with your heart

When there is no one to give it to?

Time and again I believed in great love

Then I quickly shut my eyes

But later, when I looked at life...

...the beautiful dream had flown away

Perhaps I have never known love...

...only flirtations and love games

Never have I felt that deadly sorrow

Never has my heart overflowed with joy

- Friends!

Comrades!

Revolutionaries, utopians, and romantics!

Together we fight for absolute freedom!

For justice!

I'm about to leave for Palestine

I've come from Russia

I made an attempt on the life of a minister of the Czar

Let us throw the mighty...

...onto the scrap heap of history!

Let us seize the stars!

This night belongs to us!

- I am Yussuf, Prince of Thebes

I am the Black Swan

I am David

And you, my playmate

But your farewell eyes...

You always bid goodbye with a kiss

And what will your heart be without mine?

Your tender night without my song?

But you never came with evening

I sat, wearing a cloak of stars

When there was a knock at the door...

...it was my own heart

It hangs from every doorframe

Even from yours

Rose of fire that fades in the garland's dusk

I have painted the sky crimson with my heart's blood

But you never came with evening

I stood, wearing shoes of gold

- Hello and peace - May the peace of Allah be with you

- We wish to offer you a gift from our land

Be welcome, men of peace

- My sister

- It's so beautiful

There are no words

- What do you think this is?

- I don't know

- Take a look

ll want you to guess

- The red dots must be angels come down from Heaven

And this man is caught in traffic

He is a holy man

A holy man who is waiting...

...for the angels to set him free

The angels are so tiny...

...because they're still so far away

Cars and trains rushing in every direction...

...to chase the man and crush him...

...this man who is a holy man

- See? You don't understand everything

This is a car driving in the rain

- Rain, plain, train, gain...

- I need new crayons

I can't sharpen the points any more

I need yellow and green

- I'll get you new ones. I promise

- Prince Yussuf

Welcome home to Berlin

- 1 haven't been away...

...except to Baghdad, the Sinai, Damascus...

Elsewhere would have been too tiring

You must move your office to the ground floor...

...-1 hate steps!

- For the next visit of Your Highness...

...-1 shall have two Nubian slaves ready...

...to carry you upstairs in style

- At least you know about style

That's why I call you Your Magnificence

My landlord has no style

I shouldn't pay him for more than two months, should 1?

With the rest of the money you give me...

...I'll take a little trip to the seaside, and gather impressions

- I know you're one of the best German poets

And I'm not the only one to think so

But for the moment, Your Highness' books aren't selling

-No?

- Do you have a penknife, Paul?

- What are you doing?

- Don't!

- Cassandra!

I gave you this present to make you happy

I must give it to someone else...

...-.so he'll lend me money

- You really are a prince

- And you are magnificent

King David...

...he would have understood sea journeys

I must get out of the gray and into the blue

My soul burns like the colors of an evening in Jerusalem

Look!

- Shalom

- Shalom

- Is this a collective? -Yes

- Nice. I'm Yachek - Tania

- I have a letter from Nathan

-In 1882...

...a strange young man from Latvia...

...Eliezer Perlman, arrived in Palestine

He settled in Jerusalem...

...and took a new name: Ben Yehuda

Soon, he handed his passport back to the Russian Consul

The Consul protested, but Ben Yehuda was adamant:

Perlman was dead, he explained

Ben Yehuda's wife didn't speak Hebrew

But on the boat, he announced...

...that in Palestine, they would only speak Hebrew

- As Chaim Weizmann said:

"You don't have to be crazy to be a Zionist...

"...but it helps!"

- ltamar, Ben Yehuda's son...

...was the first child in centuries...

...to hear his parents speak Hebrew

- Another newcomer

Nathan sent him

- Sit down

What's your name?

- Yachek. Yachek Levinsky. Thank you

- How did you get here?

- I walked

- All the way from Jaffa?

- Welcome

I hope you'll stay

We could do with more workers

- That's why I'm here

- Yours!

- Mine!

- Ours!

- Yours!

- Mine!

- Ours!

- It's a present for the collective

For the land

"Ours"

- Welcome!

Take a seat

- 1 brought you some food

- Yehoshua has been arrested

-I'm cold

They say that in Berlin, women are wearing pants this year

- Who said he was arrested?

- Yachek brought a letter

- Arms smuggling?

- No, distributing leaflets

- When was that?

- Two months ago

- Disputes within the Zionist movement keep new settlers from coming here

- I still remember...

...that sort of thing kept Rosa Luxemburg in Munich

- The old conflicts inside the labor movement...

The same food again?

No imagination!

- What's wrong? You miss the gefilte fish?

Why don't you go to America, too?

Wave the flag of Zion!

- The women cook and the men grumble

A bourgeois collective!

- Have you ever spent the whole day...

...tied to the cooking pots?

I'm on strike!

- Excuse me

If you're not hungry, may I have yours?

I think your food is great

- He's always complaining

Let him try and cook!

- I'll cook when you plough!

- Tomorrow!

- Me too!

- I don't understand

In the Minsk commune, everyone shared kitchen and field work

In the factory, too, men and women worked as equals

Why can't we do that here?

- Equality is equality

There is no first nor last

- It's a disgrace!

Scum! They shouldn't be allowed around here!

- What business is it of yours, you bully?

No one owns this place!

God's curse on your vulgar eyes...

...your sick fantasies, and dirty mind!

- Look what I found!

- How horrible!

Come, give it to me

Let's bury it

We'll build a pyramid fit for a pharaoh

A great star will fall down from heaven

We will stay awake all night

We will speak in tongues...

...chiseled like harps

We will embrace the night

- Listen:

Wouldn't it be a good idea...

...to settle down, and write regularly each day?

- What do you mean - "write?"

ll don't write

The poems pour out of me

A poet is like a fruit tree:

It doesn't decide to bear fruit

Fruit just grows on it

The tree doesn't care if we rest in its shade...

...if we pick its fruit...

...or hang ourselves from its branches

- But you decide what to write

- Never!

Can I choose the material of a poem like the material of a dress?

The angels pour poems into my lips

I find poems in the street, at the movies

I love the movies, and I live for miracles

I must be astonished everyday

ll need to be bewitched

Let's go back to Berlin - ll can't stand this silence

It's like being trapped in amber

Let's pack and go

I prefer to wait at the station

I need light, movement...

...people

- Yachek Levinsky, a new member

Monsieur Anton Keller, of the Alliance Frangaise

- As I thought, the answer is no

In Paris, they are not interested in collectives

They categorically refuse to give any credit

I could have told you so

You can only blame yourselves and your expectations

I'll write and try to convince them to support your efforts

They might agree to help a little

Give me the water

Who's the young man?

You shouldn't let inexperienced boys use the plough!

- That's not a boy, that's Fania

We have decided to share the work

- They won't like it in Paris

- Tell them in Paris that we've decided to guard our land ourselves

It's a question of honor

- As long as there are no Jewish thieves, we won't need Jewish guards

- Take a look at that!

"British Army Seizes a Secret Arsenal in Palestine”

- "Jewish Underground Members Have Been Arrested”

- Arms in the Holy Land!

King David rises

Absalom gives chase

Queen Shulamith takes shelter in her temple

- All that is in the paper?

- It can't be all that exciting

- Is it real, this café life?

Or is it an illusion?

Is this the world, which we watch, fascinated...

...every evening, from six to eight?

What is it, that stirs us all so much?

- What a wonderful day!

- Dr. Weintraub? -Yes?

- I'm worried about Paul

- He looks so much better than he did earlier this year

- My only hope is the Magic Mountain

I pray the mountain will come to us...

...since they won't let us go to it

The guard with iron teeth demands his three coins

- I understand

I'll have a word with my colleagues

We'll find a solution

- Madame, your son is eating all the cakes

- He must have seen a shooting star and made a wish

Give me a chocolate kiss

- You must admit...

...that "Prince Yussuf's" poetry...

...is exceptionally rich and complex in structure...

...but it's totally lacking...

...in any sign of true genius

- Would you be more precise?

- It's sensitive poetry, with captivating images...

...but it lacks intellectual concepts

- I ought to slap you!

Step outside

How dare you say such things?

I feel like hitting you!

- Dirty Jews!

- Down with decadence! - Heil Hitler!

- Jewish pigs!

- Jewish pigs!

- The blue globe turns and spins

It turns and spins before our eyes

It turns, withdraws, and spins again. The lover dreams of winning the girl

Where is the street? Where is the house?

Where is the girl I love?

Here is the street. Here is the house

And here is the girl I love

- ll wish to announce...

...that I and the authorities in Paris...

...have decided to offer you a special grant to extend your land

- We showed them!

We proved that we can cultivate and use the land wisely

We proved we have created a new Jew...

...who can plough his own land and guard it himself

- We are proud to accept this task

But this means we need new members

Could you spread the news?

- Welcome

Thank you for your help during our difficult first year

Even the National Committee accepts...

...that our agricultural system is more productive...

...than that of the exploiting landowners, who were certain that we would fail

In the name of the collective, I greet our Arab neighbors...

...who have come to celebrate with us

Welcome!

- Write it down

- Three Mausers - Three Mausers

- Three daggers - Three daggers

- Nine grenades - Nine grenades

- One Webley...

Three Grinners...

One Russian rifle...

And one Italian

Your name?

- "Berale," Dov B. Gelman

- Age?

- Nearly eighteen

- Seventeen. Where are you from?

- Bialystok, graduate of the Social Revolution section

Secretary of the Pioneers Unit, under Eliyahu Muntchik

Ready and willing!

- Turn around

Repeat after me:

*l1 hereby swear...” - "1 hereby swear -

- How did you get in here?

- It wasn't too tough

I came to share my thoughts with the comrades

- Tania!

- I handled bombs and guns in Russia. Any fool can carry a revolver

But you need patience and wisdom to befriend those who hate you

- Leave us now, Tania

Please

Go away

- I am going

But you, where are you going?

- The new fields...

...aren't too far, near Mount Tabor

- The land was bought by Arabs, landowners from Lebanon

- But it is cultivated by the Zbih tribe

In order to claim it, we must be there at dawn and start ploughing

Yachek...

Place your hand on the gun

In blood and fire Judea fell

In blood and fire Judea shall rise

In blood and fire Judea fell

In blood and fire Judea shall rise

- I have journeyed by night

And my kin know not what befell me

I cross mountains, o world!

And my kin know not what befell me

Destiny, unknown to me, has slipped into my sleep

If we had known all this, would we have parted?

- Don't stop! Don't look!

Keep at it, don't stop!

- I realize we must rely only on ourselves

But taking up arms will only lead to battle

- It's a question of honor

- This is the Zbih tribe's land. They won't give it up without a fight

- This land is ours, not theirs!

The land belongs to those who make it fertile

- A few months ago, you spoke only of self-defense

- I hope our disagreements...

...won't drive us apart

- We may have different ideas...

...but we have much in common

- I don't know how to say it

But I know it in here

In Kovno, we never talked so much

- We're not in Kovno now. It's different here

It's as if we were painting on a blank canvas...

...starting from scratch

It needs a good painter

A good painter

- Paul...

Paul, who will look after me now?

I want to return to the infinite

to myself

Already the autumn flowers flourish

My soul Perhaps - it's already too late

Oh, am dying among you

I am suffocating with you

I want to wrap myself in threads

End confusion

Disorientation

Your distractions

And escape into myself

You are back among the angels, my darling

You know the cafés are falling dark...

...and mankind will soon have vanished

It's me, Else

I came to say goodbye, my little blue horse

I will be sorry not to come here again...

...but you will travel with me

There is lamentation in the world

As if beloved God himself were dead

The leaden darkness is unfurled

heavy with tombs of lead

In every heart life lays

as in a grave

I want to return to the infinite. To myself

Already the autumn flowers flourish

My soul Perhaps - it's already too late

Oh, am dying among you

I am suffocating with you

I want to wrap myself in threads Ending confusion

Disorientation

Your distractions

And escape into myself

Satan is stalking the streets...

...and the angels are on vacation

Who knows if they'll ever come back?

Why don't we go away?

This is the end of the world!

- It is a nightmare

It will go away

It has no place in our world

At every street corner, a hundred butchers await me

- It's a nightmare

We must not believe it's real

We must preserve our humanity in this horror

We may be the last guardians...

...of decency...

...in this god-forsaken land

We must bear witness

- Keep dreaming, Ludwig

Don't wake up

- Look, she's one of them!

- A ticket, quick!

- There's no train right now

- Come on, you idiot

- Where to?

- Anywhere but here, as far as possible. To Prague

No

Zurich

Are you deaf, or what?

- A round-trip ticket? - One-way only

Who'd want to come back here?

I want to sleep without desire

if I knew of ariver...

...as deep as my life...

...would throw myself into its waters

- Your Highness, Prince Yussuf

It is a great honor for me...

...to greet you in the land of King David

- Very good, my dear Pasha

My suitcases

- The port of Jaffa can give...

...a false impression of this country

Especially at night

- I was expecting a land flowing with milk and honey

- Why are you speaking English?

I, the burning wind of the desert...

...have grown cold...

...and taken form

Raise your Sphinx-head of stone...

...and, enraged, observe the heavens

- But I feel imprisoned

- Good night, Zins

- My Dear Prince Yussuf:

I received your letter

I'll be coming to Jerusalem

I hope to see you soon

- Tania

- I know that soon I must die

Yet the trees are glowing with the craved kiss of July

My dreams are fading

Never have I written a sadder demise

In all my books of rhyme

You bring me a flower as a greeting. I have loved it since it was a seedling

But I know that soon I must die

My breath hovers over God's waters

As I set foot before foot...

...toward my home of all time

There is too much hatred in this land

What we need is a fairground

Here, on this land of stone and cactus...

...we must build a space of friendship between Arabs and Jews

Here, a merry-go-round

There, a roller coaster

A ferris wheel

A bandstand

Flowers

Benches

Trees

People will sit on the grass

Children will play in peace

Children are very important

And games are a serious matter

At home I have a blue piano...

...although I cannot play a note

It stands in the dark of the cellar door...

...since the world began to rot

Once it was played by starry hands four

- the Moon Lady sang from her boat -

Now rats dance within galore

Broken is the piano

I cry that the blue thing is dead

Dear angels, open to me, oh!

- I have eaten such bitter bread -

Let me see heaven's door...

...although it is forbid

Tania...

...last night I was sad...

...because no one invited me to dinner

Then, God spoke to me:

1 will invite you!

And Gabriel brought me a hot meal

It was the pudding we used to have at home!

I love you...

...and find you...

...even when dusk is falling

All my life...

...even now...

...1 have wandered searching

I love you!

I love you!

I love you!

Your lips open

The world is deaf

The world is blind

And so are the clouds, and so are the leaves -

Only we...

...in the golden sand from which we were -

And so are the clouds, and so are the leaves -

Only we, in the golden sand from which we were conceived -

are!

Fearful stone giants return...

...burning the land back to its origins

A rugged, desert landscape

And yet...

...always, endlessly, that echo within me...

...as if beloved God himself were dead...

...and we were in his cemetery

And Cain...

...is killing his brother...

...for all eternity

I am two thousand years old

My head flies away from me

Dear mother! If I die in the street...

...carry me to the blue skies! Dear mother!

-...1 have journeyed by night, and my kin know not what befell me...

- Fearful stone giants return...

...burning the land back to its origins

A rugged, desert landscape

- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen

A four-year-old child from Jenin...

...was killed by the police during a demonstration

In the Territories, there was a call for a boycott of all Israeli products...

...to stop work in the settlements...

...and to break off contact with the authorities

The minister in charge of the Israeli-Arab population...

...warned of growing subversive activity among Israeli Arabs

- Nations, wake up! Break your chains!

- The choice is in our hands!

- Down with capitalism and its lackeys!

- In blood and fire Judea fell In blood and fire Judea shall rise

- Freedom of thought! Freedom of speech!

- In blood and fire Judea fell In blood and fire Judea shall rise

- The weather: cloudy with scattered showers in the north

A child of four was shot by a policeman in Jenin today

The military authorities reported new violence in the Territories...