Cremator

The film is set in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1945), a totalitarian state under the control of Nazi Germany. Karel Kopfrkingl works in a crematorium, and he has a romantic fascination with death, with reincarnation, and with the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. He believes that his role is not limited to the cremation of the dead, but extends to the liberation of their souls. Karel is a World War I veteran, and he soon has a reunion with his war buddy Walter Reinke. Reinke has joined the ranks of the Nazi Party, and he tries to indoctrinate Karel to the party's ideas. Karel is an ethnic Czech with only a few known German ancestors, but Reinke insists that Karel qualifies as an ethnic German. Reinke convinces Karel to spy on the local Jewish community, and then instructs Karel to kill his own wife due to her ambiguously Jewish ancestry. Karel is soon convinced that he is liberating souls when he murders people.