Screenplay Update: Scene 15 - The Protocol of Silence

STYLE: Cold, almost clinical. High contrasts. The room feels sterile, despite the heavy oak furniture. One only hears the ticking of a wall clock and the scratching of a nib on paper.

CAST:

• Helmut Horten: August Diehl (young, extremely controlled, almost immobile)
• Siegfried Alsberg: An older actor who radiates dignity but is marked by exhaustion and fear.

---

INT. ALSBERG'S OFFICE - DAY (1933)

Siegfried Alsberg stands at the window and looks down at the street. One can hear muffled marching music and shouts from outside. Helmut Horten (Diehl) sits at the desk – his new desk. He flips through a stack of documents.

ALSBERG (without turning around) My father built this house. He knew every stone, every employee by name. Do you know what that means, Mr. Horten?

Horten does not answer immediately. He sets a document aside and smooths it with the back of his hand.

HORTEN (calmly) It means that you are emotionally attached to an object that the market has already given up on. Stones have no memory, Mr. Alsberg. And names... names are very easily replaced in payroll lists.

Alsberg turns around slowly. His hands tremble slightly.

ALSBERG The price you are offering... that is not a price. That is an insult. It doesn't even cover the loans that your friends at the bank have suddenly called in.

HORTEN (looks at him directly, his gaze is empty) I don't set the prices, I only read them. The situation out there... (he points vaguely towards the window) ...is the price. I'm offering you a solution. A clean separation. You sign here, and you can leave. Without noise. Without... complications.

ALSBERG (bitterly) "Market correction". That's your word for it, isn't it?

HORTEN It's a technical term. Efficiency isn't cruel, Mr. Alsberg. It's only consistent. The universe prefers a vacuum, and in German trade, there is currently a lot of it. I am merely filling it.

Horten pushes the fountain pen across the desk. It shines in the pale light.

HORTEN Sign the protocol. It is an act of reason. For you, it is the end of an era. For me... it is the first square meter.

Alsberg stares at the pen as if it were a weapon. The ticking of the clock gets louder.

FADE TO BLACK.