The Serpent's Egg

About the movie

It's early November 1923. Jewish-American brothers Abel and Max Rosenberg and Max's ex-wife Manuela Rosenberg had a trapeze act in a circus touring through Europe until a month ago when a wrist injury to Max sidelined the act. The three remained in Berlin, Germany generally depressed with rampant inflation leading to Abel taking up the bottle to cope. Jewish people are also being blamed for many of society's problems, but Abel fears no reprisal against himself if he does nothing wrong. Abel and Manuela, the latter who ended up living in a rooming house on her own while working in a cabaret, are reunited when Abel must inform her that Max committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Feeling at a loss both professionally and emotionally, Abel and Manuela turn to each other for comfort and support, feeling they only truly have each other. Abel's life becomes even more complicated when Police Inspector Bauer, who handled Max's suicide case, questions Abel about a series of other mysterious deaths in the last month in the vicinity of where he lived, some of the people he admits to knowing if only by face. In the process, Abel begins to believe that he's being set up to take the fall solely for being Jewish. But as Manuela tries to set up some sort of life so the two of them can be together, Abel gets caught up in unwitting circumstances that might lead to the same fate as Max and the others Abel was shown in the morgue.—Huggo