Without Blood (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[whoosh]

[upbeat music]

[light bulb buzzes]

[insects chirping]

[soft music]

[horse huffing]

[swing rattling]

[wind howling]

[muted]

[vehicle approaching]

[lock clicks]

Alejandro.

Alejandro!

[whispers]

[door closes]

[sighs]

[floor thuds]

[tense music]

Go and hide.

Don't come out, don't make

a sound, don't do anything.

Go.

[panting]

[g*nshots]

[grunts softly]

[Tito] Put down the g*n

and don't move.

Put it down!

-Everything is--

-[g*nshots]

Salinas, I got him! Don't...

[groans]

[footsteps]

[groans]

[piano plays]

We meet again, doctor.

Three hundred kilometers

to come down here.

It's a long way.

[Roca]

What do you want, Salinas?

The w*r is over.

The winner decides

when the w*r is over.

[Roca]

The w*r is over, that's it.

Not yours, doctor.

And not mine.

You'd better not touch me.

You'll be caught

and you spend the rest

of your life rotting in prison.

Do you like the idea of

growing old behind bars?

Do you?

Gurre?

-Eh?

-[chuckles]

You're mad.

Maybe, yeah.

You wanna say it again.

We'd love to hear you

talk about madmen, doctor.

Go f*ck yourself.

[sighs]

Do you know

how many times I fire a shot

in four years of w*r?

Twice.

I don't like to sh**t.

I don't like weapons.

I've never wanted to carry one.

I fought my w*r

sitting at my desk.

Salinas, the Rat.

Do you remember?

Yeah, that's how

your friends called me.

And you know what happened?

I screwed them, one by one.

I deciphered

their coded messages

and I put my spies on them.

And I screwed them.

And it went like that

for four years.

But the truth is that

I only fired twice.

The first one was at night.

I shot into the darkness

at no one.

The second one...

...it was the last day

of the w*r.

I shot my brother.

[horse neighs]

[horse neighs]

We went into the hospital

before the army arrived.

[man groans]

You had fled.

You saw which way

the wind was blowing,

so you took off

your jailers' shirts and run.

But you know what

I've remember most?

You couldn't hear a complaint.

Not a sound, doctor. Nothing.

Absolute silence.

You had reduced them

to state where

they wanted to die.

And I found my brother.

[light gasping]

Miguel...

Miguelito.

Hey, do you hear me?

That voice...

...that voice seemed

to come from hell.

[murmuring]

[raspily] k*ll me...

k*ll me...

[whimpering]

And I felt the bones

of my brother's face.

My own brother.

[crying]

One cannot ask a man

to do such a thing.

You couldn't ask it of me.

Ah!

I couldn't help it,

I was still screaming,

but as if from a distance.

Look at me, Roca.

Hey, I said look at me.

In the whole w*r,

I just fired twice.

And I will sh**t one time more,

and this will be the last one.

I've nothing to do with it.

-You've nothing to do with it?

-I had nothing to do

with that hospital.

-You were there!

-I wasn't there.

-What the f*ck are you saying?

-I swear it!

-You were there,

that was your hospital!

-My hospital?

You were the doctor

who was taking care of them.

-I swear to you, Salinas!

-You broke them.

You k*lled them.

-Shut the f*ck up!

-I didn't k*ll anybody!

I wanna k*ll you!

[groans]

[moans]

[Roca's son] Go away!

Go away!

-Go away!

-No...

Who the hell is he?

[Gurre] It's the son.

What the hell you mean?

It's the son. The Roca's son.

There wasn't supposed to be

anyone here.

You said

there wasn't anyone here!

Please.

Listen to me,

don't do anything stupid.

Put that g*n down.

Okay...

Please. Please...

Now you know what sort of man

your father is.

Now you know that

he is an assassin.

m*rder*d dozens of people.

Yeah, sometimes

he poisoned them,

little by little,

with his medicine.

Others he k*lled

by cutting open their chests

and then leaving them to die.

Your father was called

"The Hyena." Did you know that?

It was his friends

who called him "The Hyena"

and would laugh

when they said it.

At the end,

things were like that, boy.

Now it's too late,

even with the g*n in your hand.

Don't, please.

Leave him alone, please.

Please.

-Don't do anything stupid.

-He is my father.

[yelling]

No! No!

[continues shouting]

No!

[crying continues]

Shh.

Make him stop.

[moaning continues]

Make him stop, please.

Make him stop.

Ow.

[g*nsh*t]

[groans]

[groans]

Salinas, we have a boy,

where is the girl?

Roca has two sons, one was here,

where's the girl?

Find the girl! Find the girl!

[floor creaks]

[somber music]

-What the hell did you do?

-Hey.

-What the hell did you do?

-Hey.

[yells]

What the hell did you do!

-Please!

-It's enough!

What the hell did you do!

Easy, kid! Understand?

This is the life,

this is the life, right?

[birdsong]

[chatter]

Good evening.

I'd like to buy a ticket.

Have you been

waiting a long time?

No, why?

Nothing, ex-- excuse me. Um...

No, I want that one.

-This one, from here?

-Yes.

It's a good number.

How do you know?

It's my job.

Listen...

I was wondering if you would

like to come

and have a drink with me.

Me?

Yes.

I...

c-- I-I can't, I-I...

I have to keep the kiosk open;

I can't go now,

I don't have anyone that--

I can't.

Come with me.

Please.

Come with me.

[soft music]

[indistinct chattering]

When people win the lottery,

they can't keep the secret.

No?

The funny thing is that

the first person they tell

is a child.

Maybe there is

a moral to that...

but I've never been able

to figure out what it is.

Some stories are meant

to have a moral,

that's why they exist.

To say something profound.

Some, maybe are just stories.

I know who you are.

And I know why you've come.

Many years ago,

you saw three men

k*ll your father, in cold blood.

I'm the only one of those three

who's still alive.

You've come here to find me.

Now you've found me.

[exhales]

When I was a little girl

my name was Nina.

But everything ended that day.

The day my father

and my brother were k*lled.

I liked it.

Nina.

[bell tolling]

One day, a man

named Ricardo Uribe

came and took me with him.

He was a pharmacist.

He told everybody that

I was his daughter.

Everyone believed him.

He kept me in the back

of the pharmacy.

[indistinct]

At night, he would

sit on the sofa...

[indistinct]

...and put my hand on his lap.

[indistinct]

He'd tell me scary stories

about the w*r.

Then he would kiss me

on the forehead...

and let me go to sleep.

One winter evening,

he went to the Riviera.

[indistinct chattering]

[chuckles]

[Nina] At some point,

there was only him

and the Count of Torrelavid.

[cackles]

[Nina]

Then they reach that point

when gamblers

lose all sights of reality.

[chuckles]

-Do you gamble?

-No.

[Nina]

Then you won't understand.

Belsito was

the most beautiful hacienda

in the land.

You can always

bet your pharmacy.

[laughs]

You have a lovely daughter,

though.

Belsito against your daughter.

It's an honest offer.

[Nina] All eyes on him...

he couldn't think.

He just stared at his cards,

without touching them.

[sighs]

[engine starts]

The Count came to get me

first thing next morning.

[chuckles]

And then he did something

so unexpected.

He waited

until I was 14

and then he married me.

[tense music]

I gave him three sons.

[waiter] Yes?

Could we please have some tea?

[waiter] Of course, right away.

Men are so hard to understand.

The Count had only seen me

once before that day.

And he asked someone there:

"Who is that girl?"

And they told him.

I'm sorry, you have, um...

an odd way of speaking

about this.

As if...

it didn't matter to you.

On the contrary.

Everything matters too much.

I feel nostalgic

about everything

that has happened to me.

[Tito] Thank you.

[indistinct chattering]

[exhales sharply]

Is it true that

they called you Tito?

Did you ever meet my father

before that day?

I knew who he was.

Is it true that you were

the first one to sh**t him?

[Roca groans]

What do you remember?

Do you remember?

I've done nothing else

for a long time,

but remember everything.

At first, obviously, I...

didn't say anything

because I was afraid.

But time passed,

and no one thought

about the w*r anymore.

However...

at a certain point,

we heard that Roca's daughter

was alive.

She was hidden in some village

in the south.

I didn't know what to think.

It seemed incredible

that she had come out

of that inferno alive.

But with children,

you can never say.

Finally, someone saw the girl...

and swore it was really her.

So I realized,

I would never

be free of that day.

Neither I nor the others.

Naturally,

I, I, I began to ask myself

what she might have seen

and heard.

And if she could

remember my face.

[snickers]

Who knows what happens

in the mind of a child,

confronted

by something like that.

Adults have a memory,

and a sense of justice,

and often a taste for revenge.

But a child?

I, I convinced myself that

nothing would happen.

[sighs]

But then...

[groans]

[coughing]

Salinas died...

No. [groans]

...in that strange way.

[door opens]

[man] Good day, doctor.

-You know Salinas?

-[Tito] It came out

something was off

with his medication.

It might have been

a coincidence,

but it certainly it was odd.

Everyone was persuaded

that the child knew something.

That she had something

to do with it.

It's hard to

understand now, but...

those were strange times.

The country was going forward,

beyond the w*r,

at an incredible speed.

But there was a whole world

that had never emerged

from that w*r,

and was not able to fit in

with that happy land.

I was one of those.

We all were.

For us, nothing had ended.

And that child was a danger.

So it was decided that somehow

the child should be eliminated.

It seems...

to be madness...

but in reality, it was,

it was all very logical.

She had to be eliminated.

And they charged

the Count to do it.

Yeah.

The Count of Torrelavid.

[car door closes]

He was a man who had been

a double agent

for the entire w*r.

He worked for them,

but he was one of us.

He came to Uribe and asked him

if he would rather spend

his life in jail

for the m*rder of Salinas

or vanish into nothing

and leave the kid with him.

Uribe was a coward.

He left the child to the Count.

And fled.

He died ten years later,

in a godforsaken village

on the other side of the border.

He left a note saying

he had done nothing...

and that God would follow

his enemies

to the gates of hell.

Everyone expected that

the Count...

would have her k*lled.

But he didn't.

He kept her with him,

in his home.

And then finally, he said,

don't worry about the girl.

For months, no one talked

about anything else

around there.

Then, later on,

everyone forgot about that.

She grew up and bore the Count

three sons.

No one ever saw her around.

[indistinct chatter]

[excited chatter]

They called her Doa Sol.

Doa Sol.

[g*nshots]

Something odd was

said about her.

That she didn't speak.

No one ever heard her

say a word.

They taught it was an illness.

[shouting]

Without knowing why...

...people were afraid of her.

[door jingles]

[indistinct chatter]

[waiter] Good evening, Sir.

Excuse me.

May I get you anything

for dinner?

I am not hungry, thank you.

Please let me invite you.

[Tito] I am really not hungry.

Thank you.

-We'll have a dessert, please.

-[waiter] My pleasure.

It's a nice place.

Yes, yes.

Did your friends tell you

all those stories?

Yes.

And you believe them?

Yes.

Tell me the rest.

-What's the point?

-Do it, please.

It's not my story, it's yours.

You know it better than I do.

But I wanna hear it from you.

[horse neighs]

Many years had passed.

I was able to sleep at night

and around me,

there were people

who didn't call me Tito.

I didn't even remember

the train ride.

Moving with feeling,

without thinking.

[man] Seor.

He offered me a drink.

I asked if he'd remember me.

He knew who I was.

I wanted to ask.

I wanted to know.

We spoke a little about work...

and even politics...

and then I mentioned you.

Thanks for coming.

I understood.

Then I stood up and left.

He had a young boy

take me to the station.

I remember because

he couldn't have been

more than 14,

yet they let him drive the car.

[Nina] Carlos.

My oldest son. Carlos.

Before I left Belsito...

as I was walking down

the long hallway...

with all those closed doors...

I thought somewhere

in this house,

you were there.

I would like to have seen you.

I would have had nothing

to say to you,

but I would have liked

to seen your face.

After so many years.

For a second,

I was absolutely certain

that you would have come

out of there,

and pass by me,

without saying a word.

But nothing happened.

Because life is never complete.

There is always a piece missing.

[applause in background]

[music and laughter]

People look at us sitting here,

together.

They could think

you're my brother.

Maybe they wonder if,

if we're lovers.

Or perhaps they just think

we're a normal couple.

What else do you know about me?

Some ten years later

the Count died

in a car accident.

And you were left

with the three kids,

Belsito, and everything.

But the relatives

didn't like it.

So they said that you were mad

and you couldn't be left alone

with the three boys.

So finally they took

the case to court,

and the judge concluded

that they were right.

They took you away

from Belsito...

and they handed you over

to the doctors.

in a sanatorium in Santander.

Is that right?

[soft music]

[clinking]

[indistinct chattering]

[panting]

[moaning]

[doctor] Bring the electroshock.

-[groaning]

-[electricity buzzing]

A couple of years later,

you escaped...

and disappeared.

They looked for you for a while

but then they stopped.

They were convinced

you were dead.

A lot of crazy people disappear.

Do you have children?

-No.

-Why?

One has to have faith

in the world to have children.

Must be nice to be able

to make choices like that.

Those years, I was still

working on, in a factory.

Up in the north.

I thought nothing.

It struck me,

that business

about your going mad...

And I was wondering...

what sort of madness it was.

Maybe you were just

wandering around that place

screaming,

or maybe just...

seated there,

silent in a corner,

maybe holding a piece of rope

in your hands or

the head of a robin.

[chuckles]

The idea one has

of crazy people...

is ludicrous.

Yes.

If one doesn't know them.

Four years later...

El Gurre died.

He was found shot in the back...

in front of his stable.

They found a note.

With a name of a woman

written on it.

Yours.

From that day...

I began to expect you.

I knew nothing would stop you...

and that you would come

to see me as well.

I know you wouldn't

sh**t me in the back

or send someone to k*ll me

who didn't even know me.

You would come

and look me in the face.

Maybe talk to me a little.

Because it was me who opened

that trapdoor that day,

and then closed it.

And you would never forget it.

I have kept this secret...

my whole life.

Like a disease.

I earned my right to be

sitting here with you.

[indistinct chattering]

[glasses clink]

Uribe...

picked up the Count's cards

and then let them slide

through his fingers slowly,

revealing them one by one.

Then he got up...

and said goodbye to

the company, politely.

Nobody laughed,

no one said a word.

Uribe didn't realize

in that moment

what he was losing,

but he certainly realized

what he was not winning.

I wasn't worth much to him.

Now, you tell me...

how is the story less true

than the story you tell?

My father...

was a wonderful father.

He was a wonderful man.

Whether you believe it or not...

why should my truth be

less true than your story?

You know I know everything

that happened that day...

and I remember so little.

But I heard something,

but what I heard was

so absurd, it was...

like a dream.

[fire crackles]

It all vanished in that fire.

But this is what I know:

you came into my house,

you fired at my father,

then Salinas shot him,

then finally El Gurre...

stuck the machine g*n

in my father's mouth...

and blew his head off.

How do I know this?

Qutame la vida!

El Gurre told me.

He enjoyed bragging about it.

He was an animal. You all were.

Men are all animals at w*r.

Stop it.

How can God forgive you?

Stop it.

Look at you! Look at yourself,

you seem like a normal man,

with your worn out coat,

and when you take

your glasses off,

you fold them carefully

into their brown case.

The curtains

of your kiosk are clean.

And when you're gonna

cross the street,

you carefully look

to the right and left,

like a normal man.

Yet you saw my brother die

for no reason.

Just a child.

A burst of gunpowder...

and he was gone.

And you stood there

and you did nothing.

You were 17,

you were not a crippled man.

You let that happen

because that happened,

that was not some

feverish nightmare.

Please, can you explain to me

how can that be possible?

-We were fighting a w*r.

-What w*r? The w*r was over.

No, you don't know anything.

Then tell me what I don't know.

We believed in a better world.

What? What does that mean?

A just world.

Where the weak

don't have to suffer

for the evil of the others.

Where everybody has

the right to happiness.

And you believed that?

Of course I believed it,

we all believed it.

We had to do it and we knew how.

[g*nshots]

Does that sound strange to you?

Yes.

Well, we knew. And we did it.

You can't sow

without plowing first.

You have to break up the earth.

You can't dream

of a better world

and think that it will be

delivered to you

just because you ask for it.

You have to fight for it.

Well, once you understood that,

you no longer

made any difference

if they were children

or women or old people.

We knew that

however great the price...

the reward would be immense,

because we were not

fighting for money,

or a field to work, or a flag.

We were doing it

for a better world.

We were restoring to millions

of men a decent life,

and the possibility

of happiness,

of living and, and,

and dying with dignity.

What is a boy dying

against a wall,

or ten boys or hundred?

Millions of other children

were waiting for us to do it

and we did.

-Do you really believe this?

-Why shouldn't I?

Because you won the w*r...

and does this seem like

a better world to you?

[sighs]

I...

...never asked myself that.

That's not true.

You have asked yourself

this question a thousand times,

you're just

afraid of the answer.

Just as you have asked yourself

a thousand times

what were you doing

in my house that day,

k*lling a man in cold blood,

a man who you had

never even met before.

How come he didn't get

the right to a trial?

Because you had already

started murdering

and you just were

uncapable to stop.

And in all this time,

this better world

is spinning in your head,

so that you don't have to

think about

all the other people

you m*rder*d.

Revenge, that's why you k*lled.

That's why we all k*ll.

-That is not true.

-There shouldn't be

any shame in it.

Because it is the only drug

for the pain.

It's the only one thing

that can keep you

from going mad,

is the drug that

allows us to fight.

But did it free you?

No.

It burnt your life.

It filled you with ghosts.

You no longer even remember

what life is.

What do you know about it?

Right, I'm just a crazy woman...

who doesn't know

anything about life.

A child

who doesn't understand anything.

You don't understand.

But I'm too tired to

explain anything to you.

Do whatever you have to do,

just leave me in peace.

[sighs]

When I saw the trapdoor lift...

I felt delight and...

I turned...

...and I saw your face

as a young boy.

Somehow it felt natural.

I liked it,

that it was that boy

who came to get me.

But then you closed the door.

[trapdoor closes]

The darkness that returned,

the sound of the footsteps

of the boy

growing distant.

I felt lost.

And that horror never left me.

From that moment on...

all I ever wished for

was for that boy

to come back for me.

[sobbing]

I am sorry.

I'm so sorry.

[sighs]

Pick a hotel.

Pick one that you like

that is quiet.

[sighs]

[Nina] However incomprehensible

life is, we move through it,

with the single desire

to return to the hell

that created us.

Nothing is stronger

than the instinct

to return to where

they broke us

and to replicate

that moment forever.

But suddenly merciful

and without blood.

["If It Be You Will"

by Leonard Cohen]

If it be your will

That I speak no more

And my voice be still

As it was before

I will speak no more

I shall abide until

I am spoken for

If it be your will

If it be your will

That a voice be true

From this broken hill

I will sing to you

From this broken hill

All your praises

They shall ring

If it be your will

To let me sing

From this broken hill

All your praises

They shall ring

If it be your will

To let me sing

If it be your will

If there is a choice

Let the rivers fill

Let the hills rejoice

Let your mercy spill

On all these

Burning hearts in hell

If it be your will

To make us well

And to draw us near

And bind us tight

All your children here

In their rags of light

In our rags of light

All dressed to k*ll

And end this night

If it be your will

If it be your will

[soft music]