The Keep

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Are you insane?

Captain Klaus Woermann:
SS-Einsatzkommondo, Sturmbannfuhrer Kaempffer is what I am! Captain Klaus Woermann is what you are!

[Molasar appears and talks to the frightened Dr. Cuza]

Molasar:
You have... death around you.

Dr. Cuza:
Your hands?

[points at Molasar's powerful hands that touched him last time and healed him]

Molasar:
No.

Dr. Cuza:
Then, what you sense is my fate in a death camp?

Molasar:
A place where people gather to die?

Dr. Cuza:
A place where people are murdered!

Molasar:
[loud] My people are murdered?

Dr. Cuza:
Yes! And others, from all over Europe!

Molasar:
[angry] Who does this?

Dr. Cuza:
Their leader... in Berlin. And the soldiers in black.

Molasar:
[screams] I WILL DESTROY THEM! I will consume their lives...

Dr. Cuza:
When could you do this?

Molasar:
When I am complete. In two nights. If... I can leave this place.

Dr. Cuza:
Why couldn't you?

Molasar:
Because an object of mine, the origin of my power, must be removed from the Keep and hidden in these mountains and kept save from people here... and from anyone who may come here. It must be done by someone I can trust... like you. Only then can I leave the Keep and destroy the soldiers in black and their leaders. Will you carry this object... out of here... for me?

[Molasar touches Dr. Cuza on the shoulder like a friend]

Dr. Cuza:
Yes.

Major Kaempffer:
[frightened] What are you? Where do you come from?

Molasar:
Where am I from? I am... from YOU!

Molasar:
Obey me! Or I will return you to the diseased state I found you in!... and then I will slay BOTH of you!

Dr. Theodore Cuza:
I don't know what it is and I don't care. He is like a hammer! He can help smash them!

Eva Cuza:
What are you talking about? We're dealing with a Golem! A devil!

Dr. Theodore Cuza:
A devil? Now you listen to me! The devil in the Keep wears a black uniform and has a death's head in his cap, and calls himself a "Sturmbannf?hrer"!

Captain Klaus Woermann:
What's all the shooting in the village, huh?

Major Kaempffer:
A civilian to be interrogated. He resisted, and was shot!

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Another civilian! The courageous Einsatzkommondo again is victorious!

Alexandru:
There's a 108 such crosses made of nickel imbedded in the walls of the Keep.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
You counted them? Or is it something you tell your tour customers...

Alexandru:
I am Alexandru. My sons and I work here. No one tours this place.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
I thought the Keep wasn't occupied.

Alexandru:
We go home at night. We live in the village.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Where is the owner?

Alexandru:
I have no idea.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Who is he?

Alexandru:
I don't know.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Who tells you what to do?

Alexandru:
We do what needs doing. My father spent his life doing it. His father before him and so on. My sons will continue after me.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Very well. You may continue your maintenance after we settle in.

Alexandru:
You cannot stay here.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And why not?

Alexandru:
No one stays here.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And who forbids it?

Alexandru:
No one forbids. Some travellers have stayed. We don't stop them. But no one stays the night.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Ghosts? Demons?

Alexandru:
No. No ghosts here.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Deaths then? Suicides?

Alexandru:
No one's ever died here.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Then what drives people out, in the middle of a rainy night?

Alexandru:
Dreams...

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Nightmares? Look, man, the real nightmares man has made upon other men in this war. The bad dreams of your Keep are nursery rhymes by comparison.

Major Kaempffer:
In this village... partisans have been operating against the Greater German Reich!

Captain Klaus Woermann:
[catching Lutz attempting to chisel out a cross] Soldier, what's your assignment?

Lutz:
To string lights, sir.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Then what the hell are you doing? Answer!

Lutz:
The silver crosses, sir. There's talk among the men. They hide silver here. Treasure, sir.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Private Lutz, it's been a profitable day for you! Not only have you learned the crosses are made of nickel, not silver, but you have earned yourself a place on first watch all week!

Dr. Theodore Cuza:
There is a stranger at the Inn, he asks questions... I believe he's connected to the people who pay for the Keep's maintenance.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And what truth do you see? What are you discovering about yourself Kaempffer, uuh? "I murder all these people. Therefore, I must be powerful." And you smash them down only because that raises you up. It's a psychotic fantasy to escape the weakness and disease you sense in the core of your souls! You have scooped the most diseased psyches out of the German gutter! You have released the foulness that dwells in all men's minds! You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies! And from the millions of diseased mentalities that worship your twisted cross... what monstrosity has been released in this keep? Who are you meeting, Kaempffer, in the granite corridors of this keep?... [pokes Kaempffer with his finger, whispers]... Yourself.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
At Poznan, a year and a half ago, SS Einsatzkommando executed men, women and children. Children for God's sake! Ruthlessness? Courage? [whispers] How many times in this Keep have you wet your bed?

Major Kaempffer:
Don't you talk to me about courage! Were you with the German anti-fascists fighting us in Spain? No! Did you stop the Einsatzkommando at Poznan? No! You have the debilitating German disease Woermann - Sentimental Talk! It allows you feel sensitive, superior, and yet stay safe because you take no action. Your sentimental suffering makes me sick!

Captain Klaus Woermann:
For once your right, Kaempffer. I'm only half a man. All that we are is coming out! Here in this keep! [laughs]

Major Kaempffer:
The man sees the truth.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And what truth do you see? What are you discovering about yourself Kaempffer, uuh? "I murder all these people. Therefore, I must be powerful." And you smash them down only because that raises you up. It's a psychotic fantasy to escape the weakness and disease you sense in the core of your souls! You have scooped the most diseased psyches out of the German gutter! You have released the foulness that dwells in all men's minds! You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies! And from the millions of diseased mentalities that worship your twisted cross... What monstrosity has been released in this keep? Who are you meeting, Kaempffer, in the granite corridors of this keep?...

[pokes Kaempffer with his finger, whispers]

Captain Klaus Woermann:
...Yourself.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And what truth do you see? What are you discovering about yourself Kaempffer, uuh? "I murder all these people. Therefore, I must be powerful." And you smash them down only because that raises you up. It's a psychotic fantasy to escape the weakness and disease you sense in the core of your souls! You have scooped the most diseased psyches out of the German gutter! You have released the foulness that dwells in all men's minds! You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies! And from the millions of diseased mentalities that worship your twisted cross... what monstrosity has been released in this keep? Who are you meeting, Kaempffer, in the granite corridors of this keep? [pokes Kaempffer with his finger, whispers]... Yourself.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
Who built the Keep?

Alexandru:
Some say Turks. Some say the warlords of ancient Wallachia.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
No, no, this is not a fortress. A soldier could walk up the outside wall. Why are the small stones on the outside and the large stones here in the interior? It's constructed... backwards. This place was not designed to keep something... out. What is this pleace?

Alexandru:
Who knows for sure...

Alexandru:
Never touch the crosses! Never!

Captain Klaus Woermann:
And why not?

Alexandru:
You must not stay here...

[first lines]

Captain Klaus Woermann:
[to a soldier, looking at the Keep] Your new home. How do you like it ?

[last lines]

Glaeken:
Take your father out of this place.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
[screams] You murdered our Romanian citizens! We are an ally state!

Major Kaempffer:
Let's have an immediate understanding, Woermann. Because I give a damn about the death of a few communists.

Major Kaempffer:
[whispers] I will tell you something if you allow me. The people that go to these "assessment camps"... There are only two doors. One in and one out... The one out is a chimney.

Dr. Cuza:
[Dr. Cuza gets upset and screams]

Major Kaempffer:
You better find a way to be of use to me in three days. Three days. Or back to the camps go you... and your daughter.

Captain Klaus Woermann:
[looks at picture of young man] Who's this?

Dr. Cuza:
My son. He died in Spain. Five years ago this month. Fighting on the republican side. Where you in Spain?

Captain Klaus Woermann:
If I were, I would have been in the Th?lmann brigade. The anti-fascist Germans. Your son and I, we would have been fighting on the same side. [with sadness] But, no, I wasn't.

Eva Cuza:
Where do you come from?

Glaeken:
I am a traveller.

Eva Cuza:
From where?

Glaeken:
Everywhere. Go to sleep... and dream.