Das Leben ein Traum

The isolation is over which the young man was captured in for all his life. His father, the king of Poland, early sensed a threat in his son and kept him away from life and power. When he abdicates, he puts the prince to the test. He is brought to court, where he is treated as successor to the throne. Not used to human company, he behaves exactly as his father had feared: crude, violent and short-tempered. Sigismund is taken back to the tower, where he is told that the events in the palace were merely a dream.

Shortly after, when he is freed again by revolutionaries, he has already given up the distinction between life and dream. In a world that is past all recognition, he finds strength in the old rules, the foremost of which is: the decision regarding what is normal, what is true, and ultimately what is real, is a question of power.