Vladlen Davydov

Transcription

Central Studio of Children and Youth Films named after M. GORKY By commission of State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers on Television and Radio Broadcasting SEVENTEEN MOMENTS OF SPRING Part 9 Starring Stirlitz - Vyacheslav TIKHONOV Pastor Schlagg - Rostislav PLYATT Pleischner - Yevgeny YEVSTIGNEYEV Kathe - Yekaterina GRADOVA Helmut - Otto MELLIES (GDR) Rolf- Alexei SAFONOV Barbara - Olga SOSHNIKOVA Mueller - Leonid BRONEVOY Scholz - Lavrenti MASOKHA Schellenberg - Oleg TABAKOV Eismann - Leonid KURAVLYOV Himmler - Nikolai PROKOPOVICH Bormann - Yuri VIZBOR Kaltenbrunner - Mikhail ZHARKOVSKY Landlord of a secret apartment - Vladimir SMIRNOV Aide of Dulles - Vladlen DAVYDOV Cure - Vladimir KOZEL Owner of a bird shop - Yevgeny GUROV Bittner - Yuri ZAYEV Narrated by Yefim KOPELYAN Bern, Switzerland Two factors distinguish life from death: Those of volume and motion. A living man occupies a closed space, considerably larger than a coffin, and he can, from time to time, leave and, vice versa, visit that place, which may be called his home or hearth, a mental institution, a brothel, a parliament. That's the only difference. I'm not afraid of looking cynical to you. I'm inviting you to be open, which is always based on cynicism. Openness is the ultimate, intelligent, purposeful substance of cynicism. It pains me to listen to you, because every minute now starving women die in Germany, and defenseless children perish under the bombs. You can indulge in illogical deductions in peacetime, but at the time of this horrible war it is cruel to do so. And here I don't agree with you again. I don't agree with you again. Each day of peace is fraught with war and, vice versa, the horrible minutes of war are the harbingers of the coming days of peace. We're living in a strange parabola. History's underlying reasons are the ignorance about geometric forms. And even diplomacy, that false profession, attracts me by an interesting conception of mathematical provisions, if one looks at it from a certain distance. I'm more interested in talking business with you than discussing abstract problems. The gentlemen, who kindly promised to help me, told me that you're in a position to somehow put me in touch with those on whom the fate of millions in Germany depends. If we can make the noble peace come at least a day sooner, much would be forgiven us in the future. As you wish. I'm ready to answer all of your questions. It wouldn't be necessary to answer all of them. I won't believe you if you agree to answer them all. You got a point. I'm not a diplomat. I came here on behalf of some people. Yes, I know. I got some information about you. First question. Who do you represent? Excuse me, first I have to hear your answer. Who are you? I'll be speaking about the people who are left with Hitler. They're under the threat of death, they and their families. You're under no threat here, you're in a neutral country. You think that the Gestapo agents don't operate in a neutral country? Well, it's just apropos, it has nothing to do with our conversation. I'm not American. And not English. I understood that by your accent. Did you say something? I said I understood right away by your accent that you were neither English nor American. - You're Italian, aren't you? - Yes, by birth. But I'm a citizen of the USA, so you can speak frankly with me, as long as you trust the gentlemen who organized our meeting. My friends at home believe, and I share their point of view, that the speediest capitulation of all German armies and the liquidation of all the SS units will save millions of lives. My friends would like to know with what representatives of the Allies we should establish contact. You mean the simultaneous capitulation of all Reich's armies in the East, in the West, in the North and in the South? Would you like to suggest any other way? Our conversation is taking a very strange course. Those interested in negotiating are... the Germans, not us. Yes. Therefore we should set the conditions, isn't that so? To be able to talk to your friends, we must know, as the ancients taught us, who, when, how many and with whose help. Otherwise, we might consider you a double agent of the Gestapo. Or a man with no authority at all. Or an object that is used for misinformation. I'm not a politician. Perhaps you're right. But I want you to believe in my sincerity. I don't know everybody who is behind the group that sent me here, but the man representing that group is quite influential. Are we playing cat and mouse? In politics, everything must be stipulated from the start. - Everybody knows it. - I don't know anything. Seriously, I don't know anything. In politics, everything must be stipulated from the start. I would advise you to tell your friends that we won't talk to them unless we know whom they represent, what their program is, particularly their ideological platform and the plans they want to carry out in Germany with our help. The ideological platform is clear, it's based on anti-Nazism. Yes, that's the first stage of ideology. But how do your friends see the future of Germany? What will it be oriented to? What slogans will you offer to the German people? If you can't answer for your friends, perhaps you will share with me your own point of view? My point of view would be subjective. In any case, if you fear it'll be a Communist orientation, you're mistaken. Equally monstrous to me seems the idea of preserving, even if in a modified form, any system of the suppression of the German people that is existing today. All right, a counter question, then. Who can keep the German people within the limits of order if Hitler leaves? The Church people, those who are now in concentration camps, or the really existing commanders of police units, who decided to break off with Hitlerism? The police force in Germany obeys the SS Reichsfuhrer Himmler. I heard about it. So we're talking about the preservation of the SS, which, as you believe, is in power to keep people away from anarchy, within the limits of order? And who's coming forward with such proposal? I think this question hasn't been discussed by anyone yet. The pastor got frightened. He understood he blabbed out. That shrewd Italian will jump at it and get out of him everything he knows about the negotiations between the Americans and the SS. The pastor knew he couldn't lie - his face would have betrayed him. And the Italian, one of the officials on Dulles's staff, did a lot of thinking on his way back, before getting down to writing a report about the conversation. "Either he's a complete zero," mused the Italian, - "who is nobody in Germany, or he's an astute intelligence agent. He didn't know how to bargain, and yet he told me nothing. It may even be that he understands better what we want than I understand what they can give. Though his last words show that they know something about our negotiations with Wolf." I've represented here the Church and His Holiness for less than 2 months, but I can say that I've already fully acclimatized. So if you need my assistance... - You got comfortable accommodations? - Thank you, I'm fine so far. I'm happy to see you safe here, Pastor. And I'm glad you never rest content, looking for new troubles, in order to bring peace to your congregation. If I get news from the Vatican tomorrow, may I pay you a visit? I would be happy. - The hotel "Savoy"? - Yes, "Savoy". What are your plans for today? Tonight I'm invited to the chaplain of the cathedral. A splendid man, intelligent and courageous. When the Nazis banished him from Hamburg, he almost died, so hard he took the parting with his homeland. Yes, each partakes of that bitter cup. Good luck to you. Giovanni, I'm going to dictate a dispatch. Encipher it and send off at once. To Monsignor Cadicelli, Vatican. General Wolf has succeeded in his mission when he met here, in Bern, with Mister Dulles. The information we receive allow us to make the following conclusion: The negotiations of Wolf and Dulles are being successful. You must understand my position. Should I again caution Mister Dulles against further contacts with General Wolf, our American friends might get a wrong impression about our motives. State politicians can not always understand the policy of God's servants. The situation seemed to me grave and hopeless until Pastor Schlagg arrived here, in Bern. You probably remember that noble man who had always stood up for peace on his frequent visits to Switzerland, Vatican and Great Britain before 1933, when leaving Germany didn't entail the difficulties with the police that began with Hitler's coming to power. According to Pastor Schlagg, he arrived here to prevent the further progress of negotiations between Wolf and Dulles, because he's absolutely convinced that Wolf is far from looking for a peaceful solution, he's simply sounding out the possibilities of maintaining the Nazi regime. I would like your sanction for conducting more confidential talks with Pastor Schlagg. Perhaps, we should inform him in more detail about the negotiations going on in Bern. Unless I can provide Pastor Schlagg with the real proof of our sincerity, it would be hard to expect from him an open discussion whereby he could give us full information on those friends of his that sent him here from Germany. Schlagg has never been a politician, he has always been a conscientious pastor. However, looking into the future, I can see a big advantage in the fact that a pastor, a servant of God, proved to be that pure and lofty person who was seeking peace risking his life, but... doing that, made no compromises with Nazism. This lofty example of the civic courage of God's son and servant will help us when the tormented people of Germany one way or another comes back to the bosom of the Holy Church, and Pastor Schlagg, or his pure image... or his pure image will help our clergy in the future carry their light to where the domain of Nazi darkness has been and to where the Bolshevik leaders fasten their eyes now. That's why... That's why I asked your permission to familiarize Pastor Schlagg with the materials the Holy Church managed to get with the help of Monsignor Staute, the former Bishop of Hamburg. 03.16.1945 (07 hours 25 minutes) Obersturmbannfuhrer Rolf has arrived. - Continue the surveillance. - Yes, sir. What time is it? My watch has stopped. How about 7 o'clock 25 minutes? Leave us alone. Leave us alone! Will you allow me to feed the boy? I'm afraid he'll disrupt our work. The boy can wait. He cannot. He must eat by the clock. You'll feed him as soon as you answer my question. We're busy. It's time to feed the baby. He can wait. Do not disturb us! So... We've been informed that you know the resident. - I've already explained. - I know about your explanations. I read them and listened to the tape recordings. I believed them until this morning. But since this morning I no longer buy your explanations. - What happened this morning? - Something has happened. We expected it to happen. We needed the evidence, and we got it. We cannot arrest a man unless we have proof, evidence, facts or at least two persons' testimony. So, we've got the evidence. I don't know what you're talking about. May I feed my child? First you'll tell me where and when you had meetings with the resident, and then you'll go feed your child. I've explained to the man who arrested me that I don't know either the resident or his address or himself. Stop playing the fool. As the saying goes, cards on the table. Six covered ace. Guard on duty speaking. As soon as Stirlitz shows up, report to me immediately. All right, I'm writing it down. Mueller decided to play a game with Stirlitz. It wouldn't be interesting had it been not for Stirlitz's call to Bormann and their meeting. The circle had been closed: Stirlitz, the code in Bern, Russian radio girl. And that circle rested on a mighty foundation, on Bormann. So, either, by causing Bormann's downfall, Mueller would get access to the finances for a check-up, and he foresaw such possibility, or, if the rules of the game allow it, he would become indispensable to Bormann as the man who had exposed Stirlitz's conspiracy connected with the Russian radio operators. Both scenarios could mean either his ultimate ascent, or his final downfall. I'll say nothing more. I'll keep silent until you let me feed the child. Well, let's not waste time then. I know what you know and what you don't say. We'll arrange a confrontation between you and the resident. Sensing his exposure, he decided to flee abroad, but he failed to do it. He was counting on his car. He has a very good car. But he had miscalculated. Our cars are not worse but better than his. In all that muddle, you don't interest us, we're interested in him. And you're going to tell us everything about him. I got nothing to tell you. It's a frost again. Doesn't look like spring. Your hands. - What? - Your hands. Your hands. - What are you going to do? - Your hands! Barbara! Helmut! Helmut! Barbara! Bring the child. It's not for nothing that I told you about the frost. It's enough to keep your child naked on this table for 3 or 5 minutes... and he'll die. Either... or. Your choice. You won't do it. You can't do it. Yes, I'll feel terrible doing it. I'm a human being too, not a beast. My mother gave birth to me, too. But in the name of all the Reich's mothers, I shall do it! In the name of the Reich's children dying from the bombs, I'll do it! Where's the child? Bring him here, damn it! Helmut! Helmut, do you hear? Bring the child! Helmut! You're a mother, you must be reasonable. Well? Well? You're no mother. You're no mother. You look great. Just great. You could at least have taken your coat off in the reception room. But since you came in without taking your coat off, I understand you haven't found the pastor's sister and her kids. No, I haven't. More details, please: How did it happen, where is she? - A car came for her last night. - What car? Who was in the car? Whose car was it? We couldn't establish it. The neighbors heard the sound of a car pulling up. Then they saw the light coming through the cracks in the blackout. Then the car revved up again. They haven't been seen there any more. And the photo of the woman and the kids... you got it? - Yes. - Show me. Well. All right, we'll search for the woman and the kids. She may still be useful to us. Thanks for nothing, Eismann. And what shall I do with this? What shall I do with this? What is it? You may read it. This is your report. I absolutely and fully trust Standartenfuhrer Stirlitz. May we all be damned! That's better already. It's a good lesson for you, my friend. Shall I write a new report to you? What for? No. But I consider it my duty to retract my opinion. But will it look good? Retracting one's opinion doesn't smell right. What am I to do now? Just believe. That I won't take action on your report. Just that. And continue to work. You can go. A counterintelligence man must always know, as no one else, that in our time he can believe no one, sometimes even... himself. Though you can believe me. Well, enough of lyricism. Send immediately my order to Bern to stop further work on the connection man, organize his kidnapping, take him in an embassy car trunk across the border to the Reich and deliver him at the disposal of Gruppenfuhrer Mueller. At my personal disposal. That's all. Pleischner was on his way to the secret apartment. He had deliberately left 90 minutes early, to be able to walk about that zoo, located on the bank of the Aare. Pleischner was going to a secret rendezvous. Lately he had been in a state elation. He had carried out Stirlitz's assignment, he was ready for any other assignment. He expected now nothing but good from life. In fact, all last night and today's morning he had worked on the manuscript of his new book. He had very little money, but he didn't think of what happens next. Sheets of white paper were waiting for him on the table. And that was making his life orderly and meaningful. Flower Street. He was pleased with his visual memory. This time he found the street right away. Now straight on, to the house 9. Oh, my God... Suddenly he recalled clearly what Stirlitz had told him: "You'll go to the street named Flower Street. You should walk down the even-number side of the street and, passing by house No.9, look at the window on the second floor, to the left of the entrance. Flower Street, 9. The second-floor window on the left side of the entrance. You'll go up to the apartment only if there's no flowerpot in the window. The flowerpot will mean the apartment has been compromised." The day before yesterday he didn't do it. Oh, my God... It was the signal of failure. The Russian agent, sensing he was shadowed, had managed to put out that signal of alarm. Now he understood everything. He remembered entering the apartment the day before yesterday, without even hearing the counter- password. Now he knew it. Only he didn't understand could he, an experienced man, have not done two simple things about which Stirlitz told him several times, and thus he had crossed out not only his own life, but, perhaps, Stirlitz's life, too. You've missed your door, pal. You've missed your door. You're wrong. Yes. I'm wrong. 03.16.1945 (09 hours 00 minutes) The 16th of March. The armies of the 1st Byelorussian Front on the Stettin direction were fighting with the aim of liquidating the enemy's bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Oder and wiping out the enemy grouping blockaded in the town of Aldam. The armies of the right wing of the 3rd Ukrainian and the left wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Fronts have launched the Vienna offensive with the aim of crushing the main forces of the SS 6th Tank Army. Another blow has been struck on Dierre, with the aim of demolishing the Estergom-Tavoros grouping of the enemy. Guard on duty speaking. Yes, sir. I got you. Wait a second. Stirlitz is walking down the hallway. - What hallway? - Your hallway. Stirlitz's walking down your hallway. Where's he going? Stirlitz was going to Mueller. He knew that though he'd figured out Mueller and Holtoff's maneuver, the decisive battle was still ahead. Holtoff came very close to the most vulnerable aspects of his operation with the physicists. And if Runge's point of view had won over, the Germans would have gotten down to building the atomic bomb as early as 1944. It happened in 1943. Stirlitz got information that one of the leading nuclear physicists, Runge, was at the Gestapo. He got there as a result of a squabble between groups of physicists working in the laboratories managing ammunition, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and at the medical institute. Stirlitz knew that the Runge group came closest to the development of atomic weapons. And he got an assignment from the Center to find approaches to Runge. Where did you get this information? You think it improbable? No, not at all. There's a good company gathered there. Fermi, Einstein. And Oppenheimer. He's in charge of it all. We have enough good brains in this field to get ready in time for the already real nuclear threat. Something doesn't gel. Quite possibly, there's a leak, and even... as much as some conspiracy among the physicists. Stirlitz realized he meant exactly Runge and his group. And if it's the case, to expose such conspiracy of the intellectuals would be possible only with the help of the physicists themselves. And Mueller's staff consists of only bone-breakers. No, they won't manage. What information does the Standartenfuhrer have about the new trends in physics? I'm preoccupied now with the problem of how we can stop, with the help of physical chemistry, the process of masses getting stupider. It's getting very hard to work. There're so many idiots saying the right words... You're going to end up in a concentration camp. You think so? Though, no, Mueller won't send you there. You know too much. You'll be buried with honors following an automobile accident. Thank you. But first I'd like to place a wreath on his grave. Mueller is immortal. As is immortal the sleuth profession. Six weeks had passed since that conversation. Stirlitz had never precipitated events. Self-possession, he believed, is the reverse side of impetuousness. Everything is defined by proportions - art, intelligence, love, politics. The second conversation about physicist Runge came up absolutely unexpectedly during a party honoring the Fuhrer's birthday. That celebration, unlike those in earlier years, was rather modest. After Goebbels' speech there was a concert. In the evening, a small reception was held at Himmler's department. Forty-five days had passed. Or to be more exact, 45 days and 6 hours. And talking to Schellenberg, Stirlitz made a passing remark about how unwisely Mueller's people worked with the physicist arrested three months ago. Somehow or other, but I finished a physics-mathematics faculty. At one time I was on the brink of physical exhaustion because of physics. - Well? - Besides... Runge has connections. He had studied and worked overseas. It would be more beneficial if we dealt with this matter. You were majoring in quantum mechanics. - Did Mueller tell you this? - No, I have my own sources. Stirlitz had sold the idea to Schellenberg and changed the subject, beginning to tell him some jokes. He deliberately got away from the Runge case, concentrating on the discussion of other problems. He knew that Schellenberg, as a clever chief and a born intelligence man, while allowing himself to forget certain details for the time being, had never missed the principal points of any conversation. Stirlitz realized that Schellenberg was a serious adversary and it was very difficult to outdo him in matters of strategy, or even impossible. Watching him, he noticed a curious detail. When hearing some interesting ideas from his staff members, Schellenberg seemed not to have noticed them at first, and changed the subject. And only days, weeks, or even months later, after furnishing the idea with his own vision of the problem (apparently, having some consultations at the top before that), he brought forward the same idea, but this time as his own, as an operation conceived and developed by himself. And he made even a casual suggestion look so brilliant, and so skillfully tied the subject to the whole complex of problems the Reich had to solve, that no one could suspect him of primitive plagiarism. And in this case, Stirlitz had calculated everything very well. Another three weeks had passed. Schellenberg was holding a meeting on his agents' latest failures in Sweden and Liberia and the treason of two agents whom he had deemed quite reliable. Schellenberg took those failures very hard and was holding endless meetings. At each of those meetings he delivered long irritable speeches. Today he gathered the staff of the European department and grilled them one after another. Stirlitz knew Schellenberg too well, and he had calculated everything. But he never expected that the Runge case would surface in a light that he needed exactly today, following that meeting. Stirlitz, please stay. Well, Stirlitz... Bring us coffee, please. I want to tell you something, Stirlitz... It seems... it's the technological progress that will determine the future history. Especially now that the scientists are about to uncover the secrets of the atom's nucleus. I think scientists in the West and in the East have already realized that, but the politicians, unfortunately, are lagging behind. You and I will be witnessing the degradation of a politician's profession in the sense we've been used to in the course of history's last 19 centuries. To get a basic understanding... of the motives... of the people who came out to the forefront boundaries of science, to understand what inspires them, is the task not so much of the nearest future, as... a long-term, serious and prospective task. Incidentally, what's the name of that physicist? Stirlitz realized it was a test. Schellenberg wanted to ascertain whether that sly Stirlitz understood where this monologue had originated, who had once put forward that idea. Runge. - Runge? - Runge. In connection with that Runge, I have several interesting assignments for you. That's how he got the Runge case. That's how he did all he could to undermine the Germans' real opportunity to get down to developing the atomic bomb as early as 1944. However, later, after the many days spent with Runge, he got convinced that fate prevented Germany from getting the new weapon. After the Stalingrad battle, Hitler refused to finance fundamental research in the defense field unless the scientists promised him the real, practical results in 3, at most 6, months. That was a squabble of petty ambitions. The German physics geniuses were thus left outside the range of vision of the leadership. The more so that none of Germany's fuhrers even had any college education, except for Speer and Schacht. All this had been reported by Stirlitz to Moscow. Plus, he added his mite to stirring up animosity between the supporters and the opponents of Runge. Everything that harmed the enemy, automatically worked in favor of his country. Now he had to win the next stage of the battle. He had to prove he was right in this matter. He had thought out his position well. He had a strong position. My friend, please report my apologies to your chief. I promised to be here at 9, but I got back only at 9:12. Will he receive me right now or may I sleep for half an hour? I'll go and find out. He leaves it to your discretion. The chief is ready to receive you, but you can postpone the meeting until this evening. He wants to know where I shall go, thought Stirlitz. I shouldn't delay it, anyway the game will be decided in an hour or two. I'll do as you advise me. I'm afraid he'll go to see the command in the evening and I'll have to wait for him till dawn. - Does it seem logical? - Quite logical. - Now, then. - Please. - Hail Hitler! - Good morning. Frankly, I didn't expect you so early. And I was afraid of getting a dressing-down for being late. You all are afraid of getting dressing-downs from old Mueller. Have I ever in my life dressed down anyone? I'm a kindly old man about whom they spread rumors. Your handsome chief is a hundred times more malicious than I. It's just that he learned in his universities how to smile and speak French. And I still don't know whether one should cut up an apple or eat it whole, as they do at my home, together with seeds. Let's go. I got a surprise for you. This way. - We'll probably be back soon. - I haven't called for a car yet. We're not driving anywhere. Scholz speaking. Go on! Halt! Go on! The man's face was severely disfigured. But Stirlitz recognized him. It was Bormann's driver. It's not polite to come without a present. 03.16.1945 (12 hours 15 minutes) Miracles happen only in the movies. And only in the movies they do it on the count of 3. I'm not going to. You do your duty to your people, I do my duty to mine. Helmut, take the boy. Don't go away. She'll come to, and I'll continue. Barbara, bring water for her and for me. If you have heart drops, pour some into the glass. - How many does she need? - Not for her. For me. - All right. How many? - How do I know? 10 or 30. How long does it take them? How long would it take your sister or your mother? Yeah, my mother... Those bastards want to stay unsullied, and make me do that foul thing. - Give me matches. - I don't smoke. Barbara, bring matches. Look, she's come to, her eyelid's twitching. I don't know anything about it. Barbara, what keeps you there? It's disgusting. Is she alive? Barbara, look. Yes, she's breathing. Do something to her. We got no time, they're waiting. Do something to the boy! I can't listen to that! I told you the child is hungry. Stop saying that! You think only you have heart? Let me take the child away. Hello? Yes. Go away! Yes. Not yet. You think it's so easy? Why not change parts? When did he begin interrogating him? Not saying anything? Oh, they just talk like friends? Let him talk to this friend. And I'll be able to laugh. She seems to have come to. Yes, she's come to. Let's make her sit up. Bring some water for her. You're hungry, poor little thing. They haven't fed you. It's all right, your mother will come now and feed you. You love eating, eh? Oh, don't tell me you don't. Everything will be all right soon. Your mother will come and you'll forget you can cry. All right, enough of that! Enough! When it was the truth, it was all right. Now you're playing your women's games. You got mixed up in a man's affair. Your little tricks won't work here. Raise your head. Raise your head, I said! All right. I'll call Helmut and open the window. She'll open her eyes, but too late. You've made up your mind? Will you talk? - I have to think. - We don't have time for thinking. I don't know what to say. - You don't want me to lie, do you? - No. I don't want you to lie, I want you to tell the truth. I've told you all I knew. All right. I'll help you, so you won't feel like an apostate. Here. Now you see? There's no point in keeping silent. Will you talk? Will you talk, bitch, or not? Helmut! Helmut! Do I have to call you again and again?! - But the boy's fallen asleep. - Never mind! Barbara, open the door. There. There. There. No, look! You wanted it! Look! Look. Come on, look! There! There! There! There! You see?! Screenplay by Yulian SEMYONOV Directed by Tatiana LIOZNOVA Cinematography by Pyotr KATAYEV Production Designer Boris DULENKOV Music by Mikael TARIVERDIYEV Lyrics by Robert ROZHDESTVENSKY English Subtitles by T. Kameneva End of Part 9