Stars

In 1943, a non-commissioned Wehrmacht officer named Walter is tasked with supervising civilian workers at a motor vehicle workshop in a small Bulgarian town. He confines himself to drawing the area and its people rather than engaging with the war, earning the nickname 'Rembrandt' from his supervisor. His best friend Kurt prizes a portrait Walter has made, while Walter himself longs to be far from the conflict.

From the camp near the town, Ruth, a Greek Sephardic Jew, asks Walter for help with a woman giving birth. Walter dismissively refuses, and Ruth brands him a wolf and a rat, full of contempt. The moment reveals Walter's emotional distance from the war and his moral ambivalence toward the prisoners.

That day, Walter returns to the camp with a doctor who helps the exhausted woman bring a child into the world. The act of aiding a birth shows Walter's reluctant willingness to engage with people in need. The moment contrasts with the violence surrounding the war.

That evening, the motor vehicle workshop is broken into, and Walter finds the lighter of a Bulgarian man named Bai Petko. He chooses not to tell on the man, signaling his preference to stay out of trouble even as crime occurs nearby. The moment marks a turning point in his moral gray zone.

Next day, partisan soldiers secretly arrive at Petko’s home. Petko, who treats the partisans in the woods, asks Walter for medicine, claiming the supply is for the Jews in the camp. Walter agrees to smuggle a package of medicine to Blashe, one of Petko’s errand boys, blurring the lines between aid and complicity.

At the pub, Kurt notices the many Bulgarian women, while Walter brings Ruth from the camp to mingle in the town’s night streets. They walk together through the town and slowly grow closer, until Walter leaves Ruth at the camp gate and ponders what one can truly do.

The following day, Blashe is caught by the Bulgarian police with the medicine. Walter and Blashe do not inform on each other, but Kurt orders the Jews in the camp to be punished for possessing the medicine. Walter realizes that trying to do good has not actually helped anyone.

Walter returns Petko’s lighter to prove his loyalty, but Petko still suspects him of informing on Blashe. He then meets Ruth again; she is brought to him at Kurt’s initiative. They talk late into the evening, and Walter urges Ruth to escape, a plan she agrees to pursue the next night.

The next day Kurt reveals that the Jews will be deported 'Tomorrow.' Walter tries to organize Ruth’s escape with Petko, hoping to use some ruse, while Petko confesses the partisan soldiers’ real aim to steal weapons. By the time the plan could be enacted, the deportations have begun and the timing collapses.

Walter runs to the train platform but can only watch the cattle cars carrying Ruth depart. The failed rescue leaves him hollow as the lives of those he wanted to help drift away. He then returns to his room to confront the consequences of his choices.

Back in his room, Walter finds Ruth’s portrait with a note from Kurt admitting that he lied about the departure time for Walter’s own good. The discovery hardens Walter and pushes him to join Petko in figuring out how to supply weapons to the partisan soldiers. The moment marks a pivot from personal longing to a broader resistance.

The final image shows Ruth inside the cattle car, with the poignant song It Burns playing in the background. The ending leaves Walter with a sense of how his small acts of defiance intersect with the brutal machinery of deportation. The film closes on Ruth’s fate as a testament to the costs of moral ambiguity in war.