The Man with the Bassoon

Bremen, 1891. As the son of a sea captain, the young Heinrich Bockelmann has the world at his feet. He yearns to travel to other countries in search of adventure – but where exactly should he go? Strolling through the Christmas market one day, deep in thought, he suddenly hears the sound of a bassoon.






A street musician is playing a beautiful, melancholy Russian song… and finally Heinrich knows where his destiny lies – in Russia!

21 years later Heinrich is an influential banker in Moscow. He is married with four sons, and his wife is expecting their fifth child.





Heinrich is a man of sound principles who is bringing up his sons to respect humanitarian values. Then the outbreak of World War I changes everything for Germans in Russia, who are suddenly regarded as enemies.








Heinrich applies for an exit visa. He succeeds in getting his wife and their five sons on to a train to Sweden, but he is betrayed, prevented from leaving at the very last minute and banished to the Ural Mountains.

Life in the exile town of Vjatka is bitterly cold and desolate, and the longer the war rages, the worse are the chances of survival for those imprisoned here.

Then one day the commandant sends Heinrich to Moscow with instructions to raise money for the camp – and a warning that he will face certain death if he attempts to escape. Once an influential banker, Heinrich returns to Moscow in rags, visibly aged. His villa has been commandeered and turned into a military hospital. But he does at least receive a letter from Anna in Sweden.



Reading it brings tears to his eyes… and at this precise moment he hears the sound of a bassoon. He races down to the street and finds the very same man who was playing the bassoon in Bremen, the man who prompted him to come to Moscow in the first place. Heinrich sees this miraculous encounter as an omen and decides to risk everything in a desperate attempt to get to Sweden himself…