Plot

Berlin, 1923. Following the suicide of his brother, American circus acrobat Abel Rosenberg attempts to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

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

Ingmar Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg' follows a week in the life of Abel Rosenberg, an out-of-work American-Jewish circus acrobat living in poverty-stricken Berlin in November 1923. When his brother commits suicide, Abel seeks refuge in the apartment of his former sister-in-law Manuela, who works in a cabaret at night and in a brothel in the morning. Desperate to make ends meet in a city struggling with mass unemployment, Abel takes a job in Veregus' clinic, where he discovers the horrific truth behind the work of the professor and unlocks the chilling mystery that drove his brother to kill himself.—Leigh Thomas

In November 1923, in a Berlin where a pack of cigarettes costs four million marks, most people have lost faith in the present and the future. Unemployed American acrobat Abel Rosenberg loses his brother Max, who has just committed suicide after feeling depressed for a period. Seeing the modifications in the behavior of people, but without clearly understanding the reasons, alcoholic Abel moves into the room of his former sister-in-law Manuela Rosenberg, who works in a cabaret at night and in a whorehouse in the morning. Together, they move to a small apartment near the clinic of their old acquaintance, Professor Hans Vergerus, who gives Abel a job in his clinic. While working in this strange place, Abel discloses the evil truth behind the research of Prof. Vergerus.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ingmar Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg' takes place in Berlin in November of 1923, when economic depression, unemployment and hyper-inflation have created a new kind of mass poverty in Germany and the seeds for the slow decay of the Weimar democracy. Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), an American-born Jew, is an unemployed alcoholic and former trapeze artist who uses alcohol to help him deal with the horrific uncertainties of life in post-war Germany. He returns home one night to discover that his brother Max has committed suicide. Abel meets up with his old boss who gives him some money in an attempt to persuade him back to his now successful circus. Abel realizes he will not be as good as he was with his brother and so declines but his boss allows him to keep the money anyway. The Jewish community is being portrayed in the media as a drain on society. He goes to see his brother's wife Manuela (Liv Ullmann) to break the news of Max's death to her. She asks what triggered Max's suicide, but Abel is unable to provide a solid answer. The only sentence in Max's suicide note Abel can make out reads: "There is a poisoning going on". Manuela confesses to Abel that she actually works as a prostitute and merely made up her office job out of shame. November arrives and Germany has become ever more fearful that a bloody confrontation between extremist parties could soon plummet the country into another war. One night while Abel and Manuela are enjoying a drink in the brothel and enjoying the cabaret, the brothel is over-run by soldiers who beat the owner to death before burning the building to the ground. Abel manages to secure himself a new job working as a clerk in a hospital, assisting with the archiving of patient cards while Manuela gains employment at the hospital clinic. They are also given an apartment surrounded by many derelict or empty buildings. One night Abel is alerted to files containing detailed reports of graphic and inhumane experiments conducted on patients at the hospital throughout the years.