a species superior to Homo sapiens,
born in a far-off future.
This depends on the preservation
of the material in the safe-deposit box.
I don't know how this will be assured.
But I do not doubt that the material
will be preserved.
Otherwise,
my life would have no meaning.
Hello!
Excuse me,
what's the best way up to the top?
Is it Laura?
She's afraid of curvy roads.
I really don't think you should go on.
There's a storm coming in.
We're used to mountain storms. And anyway, we can't wait.
It is.
Our vacation will be over in a few days.
Maybe I can help.
That's it.
I'm Veronica. What's your name?
Dominic.
With her, you use your real name.
Thank you.
Be careful.
Goodbye, Dominic.
I can only guess what happened.
When the big storm broke out,
they were probably on the road
that runs under the mountain wall,
where most of the lightning struck.
I'm afraid they could have been buried in a rockslide
or a close strike of lightning can cause a heart attack.
Your name?
Martin Audricourt.
Passport, please.
You know, I can always go in a taxi by myself.
If I need help, I'll call from the first service station.
I don't think they could have had time to reach the shelter.
They could have taken refuge
in one of the crevices in the wall.
Oh, there's their car.
There's a woman over here.
She's dead.
Om, shanti
Shanti
Veronica?
What happened? Are you all right?
Sanskrit.
How can it be?
She's had a shock. She's suffering from amnesia.
What language is that? What is she speaking?
It's an Indian language, I think.
Her papers identify her as Veronica Buehler, age 25.
Occupation: school teacher.
Living in Liestal, Canton Bâle-Campagne.
Excuse me. - Please.
You're the only one who can calm her
and speak her language, Mr...?
Audricourt.
I'm a student of linguistics.
Greetings.
What is your name?
It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
My name is Rupini.
Thank you.
Good morning.
What can you tell us, Mr. Audricourt?
The young woman believes
she is living in northeastern India
14 centuries ago.
She feels that she has spent
several months in a cave meditating.
Now, this is where she was when a big storm broke out
and she saw lightning strike above her on the mountain.
Many large rocks were dislodged, blocking the mouth of the cave.
Is that all?
She asserts her name is Rupini,
daughter of Nagabhatta,
descended from one of the first families to convert to Buddhism.
She became a disciple of the philosopher Chandrakirti,
which is why she was in the cave copying down his works.
I see.
Would you mind if I discuss this a moment with my colleagues?
Not at all.
We will invite some doctors from, uh,
Zurich, Basel and Geneva to come to see her.
I...
If I might make a suggestion?
Yes.
Perhaps some experts from the Oriental Institute in Rome
might be necessary.
Necessary for what?
Well, to confirm if what she's saying is fact.
Fact?
Exactly.
I present to you Professor Giuseppe Tucci
from the Oriental Institute in Rome.
I am Blasi, his assistant.
Professor Tucci, it's an honor.
Before we begin, who wrote the telegram
that included some of the particulars?
I did, professor.
You're a Sanskritist?
Not exactly. Excuse me.
Uh, but I have an interest in Oriental studies.
I came only because of your report.
Thank you.
You did well.
Well-being, your ladyship.
Welcome to both of you.
Where am I?
Why doesn't anybody understand me?
As in dreams, the mind presents the appearance of duality.
We've had some of her remarks translated into English.
The young woman's knowledge of Madhyamika philosophy
and her master, Chandrakirti, is convincing.
The discussion only became delicate whenever Rupini
asked what had happened to her, where she was
and why no one understood her.
What did you tell her, professor?
I always begin by reminding of maya.
The cosmic illusion.
The great witch.
Actually it's not a dream, I told her,
but it takes part
in the illusory nature of dreaming,
because it is the future, therefore, of time.
Now, time is par excellence unreal.
I don't believe I convinced her.
But fortunately, she's, uh,
enthusiastic about logic and dialectics,
and that's mainly what we discussed.
Uh, professor,
could all this possibly be...?
How shall I say?
Fact?
"Fact"?
Mmm.
I would suggest a journey to India,
more precisely to the province of Uttar Pradesh,
to the caves where Rupini claims to have meditated.
I should think the Oriental Institute of Rome,
of which I am president, would sponsor the expedition.
And, young man,
I think you should accompany us to India.
I'd be delighted, professor.
It's been understood she will be put into a deep sleep
before leaving the clinic
and will continue to sleep
until we reach the vicinity of the caves.
Start rolling. Rolling!
Tucci! Tucci, look here!
We are very close to the frontier of Nepal.
According to Rupini's account,
this is where we'll find the cave where she would meditate.
We are very fortunate in having a pandit from Gorakhpur
familiar with the Madhyamika philosophy.
He'll be at her side when she awakens.
Everyone, hide themselves.
No form,
no feeling,
no thought,
no choice,
no consciousness.
Gone, gone,
gone beyond, completely gone.
Enlightenment.
So be it.
Welcome.
Why did it take you so long?
I was already here.
I know this place.
Stay back. Hide yourself.
Over here!
Ah!
Oh, God.
Are you all right?
Just be still. Lay still.
Just rest.
Veronica.
She recognized it.
This is the cave!
But the entrance is blocked.
I don't think you'll be needing me for a while.
She is awake,
but she has not opened her eyes.
Greetings.
How are you feeling, Rupini?
Didn't we--? Didn't we ask directions of you today?
My name is Veronica Buehler,
and I speak three languages:
German, French and English.
Have you ever tried to learn any Oriental language?
Never.
Or have you ever read anything
about India or Indian culture?
Some popular books.
Like?
Heh. Rudyard Kipling, I think?
The Jungle Book.
Have you ever heard
the name Rupini?
No.
In an earlier existence,
Veronica Buehler had been Rupini.
I would say, for the vast majority of the Orientalists,
a clear example of the transmigration of the soul.
And, young man, your opinion?
As a neophyte Orientalist,
I can only cite some classical Indian conceptions,
from Upanishads to Gautama Buddha.
Excuse me. It is precisely in the Upanishads
in the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads
that one can find this belief for the first time.
This is karma, isn't it?
But it's hard for me to believe
that I ever existed before.
How did you say?
Metempsychosis.
- Mm-hm.
That absolutely doesn't make sense to me.
Maybe...
What?
Maybe I was possessed by an evil spirit.
Well...
They never leave us alone.
It's all so confusing.
I'm afraid I'm going crazy.
Hello, Miss Veronica, just an interview.
That's enough. Let's go.
Taxi!
Just drive, drive anywhere.
I-- I think we should get away. I...
I think we should go somewhere. We should be alone.
We should go to, uh, somewhere beautiful,
a Mediterranean island.
Dominic, that would make me very, very happy.
Look, that bird.
What kind of birds do they have in Malta?
That's a Maltese falcon.
Welcome.
Thank you.
No, that's fine. Thank you.
Thanks very much.
Finally alone.
Dominic, it's beautiful here.
Yes, it is.
When I first opened my eyes and saw you...
I confess I was thinking,
if I were three or four years older and...
if he were to ask me to marry him...
I would say yes.
Veronica.
My love.
Is it true?
Yes.
I've always loved you.
Veronica?
Do you understand it?
I don't know this language.
Ancient... Beyond...
Why else did you have to know her?
Veronica?
Veronica...
It's all right.
That's all right. It's all right.
I've got you. I've got you.
I've got you, darling.
I've got you, Laura.
It's all right.
I've got you.
I've got you, darling. I've got you, Laura.
I love you, darling.
I love you.
Was that Rupini's voice?
Mm-hm. Yes.
She's moving back in time
from Sanskrit to earlier languages.
That was Egyptian.
Perhaps you'll take us back to a time before history.
The origins of language,
which is where I've always wanted to go, but I never could.
But it's helping me finish my work.
Good.
Good. I want to help you.
You know, I'm...
I'm 88 years old, really.
If I added up all the years Rupini lived,
I'd be older than you.
Well, then let's go dancing.
Thank you.
I don't think we'll be recognized,
even with our pictures in all those magazines.
Well, our pictures are still appearing.
Let me see.
What's the matter?
I feel tired all the time,
and I don't understand why.
Something is happening inside me. I can feel it.
And she's right.
The paramediumistic ecstasies have exhausted her.
Champagne?
Veronica?
Veronica!
No! Veronica, don't!
Veronica!
I was so worried!
What is it?
It was a dream.
A bad dream.
What was--? What was it?
I was somewhere beside a river, and someone,
a stranger with a head like a dog,
was coming toward me.
And in his hand, he-- He had...
Explain it to me!
I want to know what Rupini knows.
She knows things that we don't understand yet.
No. Let me--
No, no!
Don't ever leave me.
I'll never leave you.
Don't ever leave me. I'll never leave you.
Don't ever leave me.
I'll never leave you.
Veronica.
The stranger in your dream was probably Shiva.
And in his hand, a skull.
For Shiva is both creator and destroyer combined.
Dominic?
There's someone who looks like you
spying on us.
I didn't notice anyone.
By the gate.
Come and look.
There's no one there.
Maybe I was mistaken.
You've been in the sun too long. Let's go inside.
I'm 88 years old, really.
She's in a hyper-suggestive state.
Tell her you love her.
Tell her that you've always loved her.
I love you.
I've always loved you.
That's Sumerian.
No, it's Babylonian.
After Egyptian and Babylonian,
there followed probably a sample of proto-Elamite
and one of Sumerian.
She is descending deeper and deeper
into the past.
But how far back will she go?
Your life's work will finally have what was missing.
Every night for two weeks,
Veronica went further back in time.
Through unknown languages...
unwritten history.
Getting closer...
and closer...
to the inarticulate moment...
of the beginning.
But at what cost?
Madam is not suffering
from anything, anything at all.
Are you sure, doctor?
Yes. I've prescribed a series of shots
with vitamins and minerals.
Perhaps it's...
the nervous condition
that precedes menopause
in certain women.
Well, just how old do you take her to be, doctor?
Late 40s, more or less.
She's 25.
Where have all the mirrors gone?
Bring one to me.
Veronica, you're not well.
Bring a mirror to me, Dominic, please.
Maybe that one.
I should have understood this from the beginning.
One more regression,
she'll reach the protolanguage.
Your life's work will be complete.
You know I'm right.
Dominic?
Look.
Come sit with me.
Veronica.
Veronica, I'm to blame for this. No, it's me.
Listen to me. Listen to me and don't interrupt.
Please, listen.
Listen to me.
If I continue to live with you,
by autumn you will have perished.
I can't tell you more.
But I assure you,
in reality, you haven't aged.
The moment I disappear from your life,
your youth and your beauty will return.
Don't leave me, Dominic. Please, don't leave me.
I was doomed to lose everything that I love.
But I'd rather lose you young and beautiful, the way you were,
the way you will be again without me,
than to watch you perish in my arms.
You promised me you would never leave me.
I am going to leave you.
If you leave me, I will die without you.
If in a few months,
you don't find yourself as you were last autumn,
I'll come back.
The minute I receive your telegram, I'll come back.
Three or four months, just wait--
Somewhere...
far away from me.
Don't leave me. Please. Please.
Dominic.
The 3:10 train
from Bucuresti to Iasi will depart in five minutes.
The 3:10 train from Bucuresti to Iasi
will depart in five minutes.
Good evening.
Audricourt.
Sign here, please.
Thank you.
On the second floor, Room 19.
Thank you.
By the way,
do you know if the Café Select still exists?
How could it not exist? It's an historic monument.
Of course.
Have you heard of Professor Dominic Matei?
You know, I was born here.
Then you know that he frequented Café Select
the whole time he was professor here in Piatra Neamt.
That's right.
Here's your key.
Nineteen?
The second floor.
All right.
Welcome home.
Café Select.
Maman.
"Good and evil lose their meaning,
"and in the absolute
being coincides with nonbeing."
Yes, but what no one dares to say
is that in the horizon of these philosophies,
atomic wars must be,
if not justified, at least accepted.
No, I reject that.
True meaning of nuclear catastrophe can only be this:
The mutation of the human species,
and the arrival of the new man.
Yes, but atomic wars
will destroy populations, civilizations.
That is the price to be paid.
How can you even say that?
The resulting electromagnetic pulse will create
an unlimited potential for post-historic man.
Yes, but it could go the other way
and provoke a regression in the species.
All that matters is knowledge
and the perfection of the human being.
So you're saying that the end justifies the means?
There is no other way.
Just as there was no other way for Veronica, just aging
and suffering and then death.
There was no other way.
That's why you've never finished your book,
why you'll always be a failure.
No.
Dominic, what have you done?
Oh, Dominic.
Save me. Save me, Dominic.
Dominic, what have you done?
What have you done?
And the third rose?
Where shall I put the third rose?
Oh, where shall I put it?
Dominic?
Dominic Matei?
Cuconul Dominic Matei?
Is it you?
Praise God,
you've returned.
Dr. Neculache, look. He's back.
Cuconul Dominic is here.
In other words,
the story begins all over again.
Old friend.
Dominic?
Look, it's you. - I'm dreaming.
I am dreaming.
When I wake up,
it will seem like I've just begun to dream indeed.
It's like, uh,
the story of Chuang-tzu and the butterfly.
The story of Chuang-tzu and the butterfly?
Yes.
A king who was dreaming that he was a butterfly
that dreamed he was a king,
who was dreaming he was a butterfly.
I know very well that I'm--
I'm dreaming,
and in a minute or two I will wake up.
You are awake, Cucoane Dominic,
but you are tired.
In fact, you look very tired.
All right.
Between December the 20th, 1938,
and this evening, many things have happened.
That is when it is happening, Cucoane Dominic.
This is December 20th, 1938.
I don't dare tell you
what year we are really living in,
we who are outside this dream.
I know that if I were to make the effort, I would wake up.
You are not dreaming, Coane Dominic.
You're here with us, your friends.
You're at the Café Select.
This is what we imagined would happen.
When Conul Dominic comes to his senses,
when he recovers, you'll see.
He'll go straight to the Café Select.
But if I'm not dreaming,
then you'd know about...
Hiroshima.
Of the hydrogen bomb,
of Neil Armstrong,
the astronaut who landed
and walked on the moon...
...last summer in July.
Dominic!
Dominic, it's true.
You've come back.
Welcome.
You look good.
Welcome, old friend.
It's like that story of, uh, the Chinese philosopher,
you know, the one I've told you about many times.
Which Chinese philosopher?
The name escapes me now.
The one with the butterfly.
Well, it's too long to repeat.
I'll call for a sleigh to take you home.
I don't need a sleigh.
I'm going on foot.
The next time the problem arises,
I shall know how to answer.
What problem, dear Dominic?
The problem which worries all of us.
Dominic?
Is it your teeth?
Is it your teeth? Dominic?
Should I lock up the door?
The guest in Room 19 hasn't come back yet.
He went to the Café Select.
I'll call.
Yes, he came here.
He went into the backroom.
Uh, no one was there,
so he stayed only a few minutes
and left without saying good night.
He was, uh, holding his hand to his mouth.
And the third?
Where do you want me to put
the third rose?