Arch of Triumph 1984

Ravic is an Austrian doctor who helped Jews escape from the Nazi regime and endured torture in a concentration camp. In 1939, he hides in Paris under a false name, living without documents and constantly fearing arrest. His nights are haunted by the sense that each street could betray him, and survival in a city on the brink of war becomes a careful, guarded routine.

One night, on a bridge over the Seine, Joan Madou appears to be about to jump, and Ravic intervenes. What starts as a rescue grows into a tense, intimate connection, a fragile romance born under the weight of a past that refuses to stay buried. Their bond deepens even as Ravic’s secret status as a refugee without papers keeps them on a knife-edge of danger and possibility.

Yet the threat from the Nazi regime returns in the figure of Ivon Haake, the Gestapo chief who sent Ravic to the camps. The danger of pursuit forces a separation from Joan, and communication between them becomes nearly impossible as the world tilts toward war. They each struggle to navigate love and danger in a city where every corner holds risk and every decision could be fatal.

Months pass, and the two lovers try to mend what was broken, even as international events spin toward catastrophe. War looms large in the air, carried by radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines that remind them how fragile their refuge has become. In a moment of reckless longing, Joan tells her lover that she is leaving him for Ravic and agrees to meet Ravic at a restaurant, where the old ghosts of fear and vengeance quietly reassert themselves.

The night unfolds with violence and tragedy. Ravic confronts Haake, killing him, but the act is hollow, too rushed to reveal his own identity or to expose the lives Haake destroyed. Joan’s lover shoots her, and hours later he seeks Ravic out for help. Ravic’s skill as a surgeon is tested to its limits when he discovers the bullet cannot be removed. Paralyzed, dying, and wracked with pain, Joan makes him promise to release her. They declare their love in a quiet, final moment, and Ravic’s sobs break the quiet: “My life, my love… God, Why?”

His old friend offers him false identity papers, but Ravic has grown tired of running and living without a name. He turns himself in to the French authorities and is sent to an internment camp. As a small, compassionate gesture, he tells a pregnant woman on the transport not to worry. A fellow passenger says, “Here we go again.” Ravic answers, “Ah yes, Human beings can stand a great deal.” The truck disappears into the night, heading toward the Arc de Triomphe as Europe braces for the invasion, and the audience understands that Paris is about to be swallowed by war.