Werckmeister Harmonies

In Turin on January 3, 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, the driver of a hansom cab is having trouble with a stubborn horse. Despite all his urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and whips it. Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene, throwing his arms around the horse?s neck and sobbing. His landlord takes him home, where he lies motionless and silent for two days on a couch until he mutters his last words.

The film depicts, in close-up, a young couple in crisis, exploring the circumstances that ultimately lead to their break-up. Irén, her husband, and their daughter Krisztike, are squeezed into a suburban room-and-kitchen flat, which they have to share with four other family members as a result of the housing shortages faced by many Eastern European countries under communism. In this impossibly small space, even the tiniest problems result in scathing quarrels and the outcome for the family is inevitably bleak.

Karrer plods his way through life in quiet desperation. His environment is drab, rainy and muddy. Eaten up with solitude, his hopelessness would be unbearable, except for the existence of the Titanik Bar and its beautiful, married singer, who dreams of one day becoming famous. When Karrer is offered a smuggling job by the bartender, he decides to offer it to her husband, Sebastian, hoping that this absence will provide him with an opportunity to get close to the singer.