"The Revolutionary"

(temporary title)

:A Synopsis for a full length feature length film written by

Amit Leor

:Based on a story by
Baruch Abuloff and Isaac Cohen

:Producers
Baruch Abuloff and Isaac Cohen
Asia Eropa Productions, L.T.D
49 Shenkin St.
Tel Aviv, Israel, 65233
Tel: 972-50-371-8427
E-mail: abuloff@gmail.com

Long nose”: an accepted nickname in China for foreigners also given to Doctor Yaacov Rosenfeld (in“

(the photograph between General Lao Chouk (left) and General Chou (right
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The immigration clerk that processed Dr. Yaakov Rosenfeld when he arrived at
Haifa, Israel in 1949 had no idea that the feeble Austrian refugee that stood before
him was in fact General Lu Deifu who had fought in the mountains as an equal with
the Chinese Guerillas and had established the field hospital for Mao Tse Tung's Red
Army. The patients who later arrived at his clinic at the Assuta Hospital in Tel-Aviv
could not have imagined that the modest doctor treating them had marched with Mao
and his army in their great victory parade at Tiananmen square that marked the climax
of the great revolution, and was later named the first Minister of Health of the new
Chinese government under Mao. Today, 56 years after his death, the foreigner who
rose to the highest rank China ever afforded an outsider, a Jew in whose name a
hospital was built, and whose face appeared on official stamps issued in China, is not
remembered or even mentioned in the Hebrew Wikipedia. But perhaps that is the fate
of an idealist, a revolutionary, after filling his historic role, to return to total oblivion
.and to die alone, and unacknowledged

Vienna, Austria, 1937

Dr. Yaakov Rosenfeld, an Austrian Jew about 30 years old, among the recognized
and most respected doctors in Vienna, finishes treating a young Austrian boy and
escorts the child and his mother to the clinic door. He checks to see that no one is left
in the waiting room, locks the door and proceeds to a room behind the clinic. He
meets there two of his friends, Heinz Wilhelm, a journalist, and Alex Stahl, a
psychology student of Professor Sigmund Freud. The three Jews, members of the
Socialist Democratic Party, are printing anti-imperialist propaganda in preparation for
.a demonstration to take place later that day
The demonstration is underway, the doctor and his young friends at its head shouting
slogans. Rosenfeld steps onto a crate and begins lecturing passionately to the
demonstrators. Two trucks pull into the area and jerk to a stop; police descend from
the trucks and begin to beat the demonstrators with clubs. Dr. Rosenfeld jumps to
defend Heinz, receives a blow meant for the other, and is dragged away by two
.policemen and is arrested
A few days later the three beaten friends sit in a Viennese café, excitedly exchanging
experiences of the demonstration, when Eva Isenberg enters the café. Eva, a beautiful
25 year old, waves to Alex, Rosenfeld, stunned by her beauty interrogates Alex about
her, and the latter invites him to join him the next day at the opera house to hear for
himself that the young maiden is not just beautiful, but a renowned mezzo-soprano
.who performs at the leading opera houses in Europe
Rosenfeld goes from the café to his parents’ house to treat his sick mother. He ignores
his parent's pleas for him to stop his political activities and explains that he simply
cannot stand by while he sees so many injustices occurring around him and that it is
his duty to act. He gives his mother medicine for her ailing heart and leaves,
obviously troubled by his mother’s ill health.

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Rosenfeld sits next to his friend Alex at the opera, his eyes fixed on Eva, standing on
the stage beautifully singing an aria. He leans towards Alex and whispers: “You must
introduce me to her.” On their way back stage he collects flowers that have been
strewn there and proceed to the dressing rooms. Rosenfeld presents the flowers to
Eva. She smiles, and he, winking at Alex, tells her that he selected each one
individually, especially for her. She winks at him and says: "You picked them up from
the stage".
The spark between them is lit; they proceed to a romantic cruise on the Danube and
from there to a passionate night of love making.

A few days later the young lovers, along with their friend Alex, join a group at the
house of Sigmund Freud. There, are gathered friends and associates, including Carl
Jung, one of Freud’s first adherents, who tells excitedly that he has just joined the
Nazi Party. Freud turns to the crowd and says: “friends, in all my years as a
psychiatrist I have not been able to solve a certain problem and I would like your
opinion, "What does a woman want?” Princess Mary Bunford, one of Freud’s
patients and a great admirer, looks hungrily at Rosenfeld and utters: “That's simple,
an honest man that will fill her basic needs without constantly asking that nagging
question, Herr Doctor.” Eva, who is not amused by Mary’s interest in her man, turns
to Freud and says: “Perhaps a more relevant question for all of us now, Herr Doctor,
is how Chancellor Schusnig will respond to Adolf Hitler’s demand for surrender.”

Vienna, 1938, The Anschluss

Rosenfeld, Heinz, Alex and Eva are on their way to a picnic when suddenly they turn
the corner and into a crowd lining the sidewalk, cheering the Nazi soldiers marching
through the streets of Vienna. Eva rushes forward, yells and curses at the Nazi parade;
Rosenfeld pulls her back, blocks her mouth, looks deep into her eyes and suddenly
blurts out: "Marry me". "But we barely know each other", Eva whispers to him,
"marry me", he fervently reiterates. Tears fill her eyes; he hugs her, stares over her
shoulder with hatred and trepidation at the soldiers marching before him.

A Viennese club crowded with drunken Nazi officers making a loud racket that
drowns out the voice of Eva, who stands on a stage before them attempting to sing.
Heinz and Alex try to calm Rosenfeld, who is furious at the soldiers’ behavior, but
when Eva descends from the stage and Tumacher, one of the drunken officers grabs
her roughly and attempts to kiss her; they can no longer restrain their friend.
Rosenfeld strikes the officer and a brawl erupts. Rosenfeld, Heinz, Alex and Eva flee
the club. They run to a street corner, Rosenfeld implores his friends to take Eva and
run down a side alley while he draws the pursuing Nazi soldiers after him. After a
short chase the Nazis catch Rosenfeld, throw him on the ground, beat and kick him
almost to death. The beaten Rosenfeld is taken to Gestapo headquarters and tossed in
a cell. Later he is dragged out of his cell and led into the commanding officer's office.
The commander turns out to be Tumacher; the very same officer Rosenfeld attacked.
Tumacher, reviewing his file and seeing that Rosenfeld is a prominent doctor, tells
him he is about to deport him to the concentration camp at Buchenwald, to treat the
Gestapo garrison stationed there. Rosenfeld snaps at him: "I'm sorry but I'm not a
veterinarian", the Nazi pulls out his pistol, points it at Rosenfeld's head, but instead of
shooting, crashes it into his face and Rosenfeld falls to the ground unconscious.

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Buchenwald – 1939
Dr. Rosenfeld is afforded preferred treatment by the officer in charge of the
concentration camp, whom he is treating for syphilis. While he is crossing the
compound, Rosenfeld makes out his friend Alex among a group of inmates returning
from hard labor, and sees the latter collapse from exhaustion. He looks on helplessly
as a Nazi soldier aims at Alex and threatens to shoot unless he rises. Somehow Alex
finds the strength to get up and stumble on. At night Rosenfeld sneaks over to the
barracks to treat his friend. When they meet the lifeless and depressed Alex tells
Rosenfeld that he has seen his parents and that his mother’s condition has deteriorated
badly. As to Eva, Alex answers that he has no information. Rosenfeld gives Alex
medicine and implores him not to show signs of weakness, for if the Nazis think he
can no longer work he will be sent to his death. Rosenfeld leaves the prisoner barracks
with tears in his eyes.
Later that night, Rosenfeld meet's with the commanding officers driver. Bribing the
junky driver with all the morpheme he had in his medicine cabinet, he escapes from
the camp and makes his way through the countryside, hiding under a blanket in the
back of a car, back to Vienna. Reaching the city, the first place he goes to is the opera
house. There he is informed by one of the workers that Eva with a few more of the
troupe has managed to escape Austria, where to he has no idea. Grief-stricken,
Rosenfeld continues on to his parent’s house, on his way he is about to cross the
square outside Sigmund Freud's house when he sees a mob of demonstrators headed
by Nazi soldiers who are piling Freud’s books in a heap and yelling Nazi slogans
towards his window. Leading the operation is Tumacher, who in front of Rosenfeld's
stunned eyes shoots and old, long bearded Jew in the head. Rosenfeld stands
dumbfounded at the sight, but when Tumacher, his old rival turns his head towards
him, Rosenfeld snaps out of it and rushes across the square. Rosenfeld knocks on
Freud's door; Princess Mary Bunfort opens the door, recognizes Rosenfeld, and
takes him in quickly. Inside the house Freud is in a rage as Carl Jung tries to
convince him that his research will receive academic recognition if he would only
claim his support of the Nazi party. In a fury Freud runs from the room, returns with
his manuscripts and attempts to throw them out the window into the mob bellow.
Princess Mary manages with difficulty to restrain him. Freud takes a page of paper
and a pen, writes and reads out loud and cynically to Jung: “I, Dr. Sigmund Freud,
warmly recommend the Nazi party to all my friends. Jung, is this what I must do to
ensure that years of research won’t be go down the drain?” He stands before his
window with the others, looking out into the street where Nazi supporters are burning
a huge pile of his books.
That night, Mary and Rosenfeld take Freud’s manuscripts and hide them in a safe in
Mary’s house. Their adrenaline rushing, they fall into each other’s arms and make
love desperately. The next morning Princess Mary tells Rosenfeld that the Nazi’s
have announced that those Jews who can leave Austria within two weeks will be
spared. She tells him about the Chinese ambassador, Hu Feng Shen, an intellectual
that whilst studying for his degree at the Berlin University bitterly opposed the Nazi
movement, is currently sympathetic to the Jews, and is issuing thousands of exit visas
from Austria to his country.
At dawn, Rosenfeld makes his way through the quiet streets to the ambassador’s
house. Arriving there he meets Karl Minz, the director of a Jewish orphanage to
whom the Chinese ambassador promised visas for his orphans. There, they are told
that just an hour earlier the Nazis, having caught on to the activities of the Chinese

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ambassador, closed the embassy and sent him to the train station to be deported from
Austria. The two hurriedly make their way to the station. There, a split second before
the train leaves the station; Ambassador Hu Feng Shen throws Minz a packet of
signed exit visas. With the visas under his arm Minz starts making his way out of the
station, but Tumacher who happens to be at the station, sees the suspicious looking
old Jew and proceeds to chase after him. Tumacher catches up to Minz in a secluded
corner, he points his revolver at the Jew's head, but before he pulls the trigger an iron
bar crushes his head. Rosenfeld is holding the iron bar, in his rage he is about to strike
again when Minz barely stops him, pleading with him to flee the sight.
Rosenfeld makes his way to his parent’s house to tell them of his plan to escape with
them to China. But his mother insists that she's much too ill to make the journey.
Rosenfeld refuses to leave without her and his father. Shockingly, she slaps him hard
on the face and says: “Save your self son, I will never make it to China, save your
life!” His father heeds him to take his mother’s advice.

Rosenfeld stands forlorn at the gangplank of a ship, takes one last look at Austria's
shores, then turns and looks at Karl Minz, his bunched orphans surround him, whilst
the whistle blows and the ship leaves shore, bound for Shanghai.

Shanghai – “Little Vienna” – 1940

Those days Shanghai is a large cosmopolitan, the ‘Paris of the Orient.’ In the Jewish
community there are many émigrés from Russia who have become small
businessmen, shop and café owners. There is an older wave of Jewish émigrés from
Iraq who during their many years there have become a fixture in the real estate market
and have taken an active role in the development of the city. They have good relations
with the Japanese governor who rules the city, which in turn has given refuge to the
Jews fleeing Europe. Dr. Rosenfeld blends into this largely poor community that has
been dubbed “little Vienna.” He opens a small clinic and spends his spare time at
"The White Horse Inn,” frequented by Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria.
Waitresses in traditional Austrian dress serve coffee and strudel.
One evening an Iraqi merchant, Victor Zelika, a leader in the Jewish community in
Shanghai, approaches him. Zelika asks him to take responsibility for treating Jewish
refugees that have been classified as “stateless” and promises to obtain financial
support and medicines for the his clinic. Rosenfeld treats the poor Jewish refugees,
among them the orphans of Karl Minz.
Zelika invites Rosenfeld to his synagogue, and after to Shabbat dinner. There
Rosenfeld meets Hanna, Zelika’s beautiful young daughter. Hanna volunteers to
work in Rosenfeld’s clinic and the two fall in love. Zelika does not approve of the
match and warns his daughter to maintain his honor and her innocence.
One Shabbat, in the meeting room behind the Synagogue, one of the leaders of the
Jewish community reports on secret meeting that took place between a mission from
Nazi Germany and the Japanese government that rules the city, with the goal of taking
care of the ‘Jewish problem” in Shanghai. The horrific plan is to provide the Japanese
governor with the means to trap the Jews on the eve the New Year, when families are
collected for the traditional dinner, put them all on ships, and sink them mid water.
Zelika uses his connections with General Chiang Kai Chek to obtain a meeting with
the Japanese Governor. Zelika asks Rosenfeld to come with him to the meeting. To
their surprise, the Nazi General heading the German delegation is in attendance. He
turns to Zelika and asks him: “Tell me, what is it about you Jews that makes us hate

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you so much?” Rosenfeld answers: “Apparently it is because we are short and have
dark hair,” and looks directly at the Japanese Governor. In the discussion that follows
a compromise is reached where for the time being the Jews are to be assembled and
made to live in the Hongku Ghetto.
Rosenfeld works day and night treating the large number of ill that have come as a
result of disease that has spread throughout the ghetto. One day, the clinic door opens
and in steps Heinz Wilhelm, Rosenfeld’s journalist friend from Vienna. In the
emotional reunion that follows Heinz explains how he fled from Vienna to Shanghai
and relates the tragic death of their mutual friend Alex Stahl, the psychologist that
was murdered at Buchenwald.
Later, at the White Horse Inn, Heinz excitedly tells Rosenfeld and Hanna Zelika
about his new business: he is sending press reports to western countries about how
Mao Tse Tung is recruiting peasants to fight against the Japanese invasion. Rosenfeld
is exhilarated by Heinz's account of how Mao is taking the land from Feudal owners
and giving it back to the peasants, teaching them political awareness and bringing
dignity back into their lives. The sense of idealism that has lied dormant in Rosenfeld
is awakening once again. Mao’s revolution stirs the rebel within him. He expounds to
his friends how they may be able to help this new movement, but an informer
listening to the conversation reports it to the authorities.
Victor Zelika is called to the Japanese Governor, the latter tells Zelika about this
transgression. Zelika summons Rosenfeld and his daughter to verify if this report is
true, and on hearing it is so, forbids his daughter to meet further with the doctor.
Hanna does not have the courage to defy her father. Rosenfeld decides to leave
Shanchay, he asks Heinz to lead him to North, where the guerillas forces are active.
He takes leave of Hanna, who begs him not to go, and makes his way north with
Heinz, determined to join Mao’s revolution.

Hunan Province, China, 1940

Rosenfeld and Heinz set out on the long journey. On their way they pass through
villages that have been freed by Mao. Rosenfeld treats the sick and wounded and they
in turn tell him of their admiration of Mao, of how he has chased away the puppet
landlords and redistributed the land among them. In one of the villages they come
across a barrier that the guerillas have constructed to stop a Japanese supply train. A
firefight ensues between the trapped Japanese and the guerillas. During the fight one
of the Chinese officers takes rifles from his soldiers that have fallen and presses them
into the hands of Rosenfeld and Heinz. They find themselves taken up in the battle,
pushed forward by passion and new found courage. The wounded are loaded onto
trucks and Rosenfeld treats them as shells fall all around. He battles especially to save
Jiao, a sixteen year old girl who has been shot mortally in the stomach.

Yanschuang; the command post of the fourth division of the Red Army, Dr.
Rosenfeld and Heinz are received enthusiastically by army officers that have heard of
their battle. The Chief Doctor of the division, Dr. Sung Nu, hurries forward with a
stretcher to receive her daughter Jiao, the same girl that Rosenfeld saved during the
truck journey there. Rosenfeld enters the field station and Sung Nu thanks him
profusely for saving her daughter’s life. Rosenfeld rolls up his sleeves and
participates in the field operation that places Jiao out of danger. The lack of
anesthetics makes the operation especially tense. The two doctors make eye contact
during the operation. The beautiful Chinese doctor, the widow of an officer killed in

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battle, tells Rosenfeld that she will eternally be beholden to him for what he has done.
As a result of their part in the battle and the care for the wounded, Heinz and
Rosenfeld are formally accepted to the Red Army.
Heinz finds himself between battles sitting huddled over his typewriter, writing
dispatches to the western news agencies on the conduct of the campaign. Rosenfeld
employs his skill at learning new languages and quickly communicates and becomes
endeared to his new friends. During one of the battles he conducts an operation on a
wounded soldier by the light of a flashlight, with soldiers falling around him and
bullets whistling overhead. General Chuang, commander of the fourth division,
enters the field tent and is deeply impressed by the courage and dedication of the
Jewish doctor. Rosenfeld does his best to convince the general that the medical
supplies they are receiving from Chiang Kai Chek are lacking, out of date and
damaged. He pleads with him to order western medicines from Australia. A loud
argument ensues between Rosenfeld and Dr. Sung Nu who is a supporter of Chinese
medicine and has based her treatments on supplies she has received from Chiang.
General Chuang sides with Rosenfeld and takes the opportunity to appoint him chief
medical officer, supplanting Dr. Nu. Rosenfeld begins training Chinese using
western methods and hygiene. Dr. Nu is deeply resentful and envious, yet she cannot
deny the fact that Rosenfeld saved her daughter’s life, and since that time the
relations between the two have become almost those of father and daughter.
Rosenfeld has taken to calling Jiao “Rosa,” his mother’s name.

The Doctor and Heinz make contact with Lady Rachel Zelika, who with her
daughter Hanna’s support, convinces her husband Viktor Zelika, to accept the new
reality, to support Mao, whose power is growing and beginning to threaten Chang
Kai Chek. Zelika imports medical supplies and equipment that is sent with the help
of his daughter and his business manager (who is deeply in love with Hanna) to
Rosenfeld.
With the arrival of the supplies General Chuang confers upon Rosenfeld the rank of
senior Officer and gives him the responsibility for creating the Army’s field hospital
and taking responsibility for the treatment of all wounded. At the same time the
General gives Rosenfeld his Chinese name, Lu Deifu. Rosenfeld trains Dr. Nu in
western medical techniques; they begin a stormy argument on cultural differences and
end up in bed. In spite of Rosenfeld’s testimony of love for her and her daughter, Nu
tells him that because of cultural differences they can never be a family.

1941-1949, Civil War

The two great parties, the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai Chek and the Communist
Party of Mao Tse Tung, fail to reach agreement, and a civil war ensued in China.
Heinz and Rosenfeld take an active part in the campaign, the guerillas appearing,
striking, and disappearing like ghosts. They whittle away at Chiang’s forces, and
these reluctantly begin a general retreat. Mao, at the behest of General Chuang,
confers upon Rosenfeld the rank of General. At the same meeting Mao tells all his
generals to show respect for prisoners and to kill as few as possible enemy soldiers.
“A man is not an onion. If we cut off his head another will not grow in its place.”

Rosenfeld, or as the Chinese call him, General Lu Deifu, is given command of the
Red Army Medical Corps, and manages it with maximum efficiency. Dr. Nu

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becomes more and more embittered and sparks frequently fly between them.
Rosenfeld can’t hide his pleasure when Jiao marries a young Chinese officer, and
weeps openly when she gives birth to her son, places the child in his hands and asks
him to be her son's grandfather.

Chiang launches a general attack against the Red Army and a wave of Kuomintang
soldiers descends on the field hospital at the Red Army’s central camp. Heinz and
Rosenfeld are forced into short range fighting, protecting each other. Heinz is hit, and
in spite of Rosenfeld’s tearful pleas, dies in his arms. Chiang’s army is forced back
and following the battle Heinz is buried a military burial with full honors.

Dr. Sung Nu is detained and charged with spying for Chiang Kai Chek. She pleads
with Rosenfeld to intervene to no avail, and is publicly executed while Rosenfeld
holds her daughter, Jiao, tightly in his arms, her face turned away so as not to see her
mother’s body slump before the fusillade of the firing squad.

1949- Tiananmen Square

After the failure of Chiang’s last offensive, the Communist forces gain control of
China. The Doctor enters with the victors into the city. In a great demonstration that s
held in Tiananmen Square, Mao announces the formation of the People’s Republic
of China. In the presence of General Chuang who has become a government minister,
Mao appoints Rosenfeld the First Minster of Health of the People’s Republic.
In an interview given to the Chinese press, in answer to the question ‘why did you
endanger your own life for the Chinese people’, he answers: “I am here not as a guest,
I am a soldier in a white coat.” During the ceremonies, Rosenfeld, in his general’s
uniform, meets Hanna, Zelika’s daughter, who he learns has married. The proud
Zelika holds a grandson in his arms as his business manager stands alongside his
wife, Hanna. As they leave Rosenfeld feels a pain in his chest.
Later, in General Chuang’s office, now the foreign minister, the two agree that
Rosenfeld should return to Vienna to take care of his heart condition. The two
comrades part company with a deeply felt salute. Jiao and her son accompany
Rosenfeld to the terminal. The little boy kisses him and calls him grandfather in
Chinese, Jiao embraces him, making him promise to get well and return soon.

Vienna – 1949
Dr. Rosenfeld arrives in Vienna for heart treatment. He searches for his father and
mother but does not find them. After his treatment he wanders the city with nothing
to do. He visits the old opera house, crosses the square opposite Freud’s house, tries
to imagine his city before the war and simply cannot find himself. He decides to
return to China, but the revolution has caused the Chinese to close all their embassies
overseas and their borders, and he cannot obtain a visa. He decides to go to Israel.

Israel – Haifa Port – 1949

To the customs clerk that received Rosenfeld at Haifa Port, it appeared that the
Austrian refugee that stood before him claiming that he was General Lu Deifu, the

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Chinese Minister of Health, was completely crazy. Rosenfeld smiles wearily and says
to him: “write…Yaakov Rosenfeld, Dr. Yaakov Rosenfeld…”

Israel – Assuta Hospital – 1951

Rosenfeld is a doctor in the Assuta Hospital in Tel-Aviv. While he treats patients he
keeps the radio tuned to the station dedicated to finding missing relatives and he hears
a familiar name. He stands, asks the pardon of the patient he is treating, and runs
excitedly from the room.

On the beach in Tel Aviv, Rosenfeld finishes telling Eva Issenberg, his old love, all
that happened to him. When she asks him if he is disappointed with what happened
with the Chinese, he replies that he regrets nothing. He would have to be born again
with a different personality to do anything differently. Eva speaks of the new country,
all the revolutions that are going on all around them. "I'm tired of revolutions" says
Rosenfeld, "I want to concentrate on all the things I always thought futile and now
seem so important to me". "What" asks Eva. "Life", answers Rosenfeld wryly. Eva
tells him about the Kibbutz where she lives since she succeeded fleeing Austria for
Israel. He asks carefully if she has married and is delighted to hear she has not. He
asks after the child she has brought with her, now jumping the waves in the Tel Aviv
Ocean. He is excited to tears to hear that his name is David, that he is 10 years old,
and that, yes, he is Rosenfeld’s son, a fruit of their short romance so long ago. He
asks tenderly if she will agree that he present himself to the boy. "I have to get him
ready for it" she replies.
They walk together on the beach, standing to each side of David. Rosenfeld cannot
stop staring at his son. Eva is afraid of missing her bus. They agree to meet the next
week and part with a kiss. He watches them go, a smile spreading across his lips. He
turns to the ocean, sits, looks to the horizon happier than he has ever been in his life;
he brings his hands up to his heart and collapses on the sandy beach, dead.

Final Titles:
When the Chinese government learned of the death of Doctor Yaakov Rosenfeld,
they requested to bring his body to Shanghai for burial, but The Israeli Government
refused. The Jewish General of the Red Army became a national hero in China, the
only foreigner ever to hold the rank of general and government minister. The Chinese
issued stamps with his likeness, built a hospital in his name, erected a monument to
him and named streets after him. To this day official delegations from China travel to
the cemetery where he rests in Tel Aviv to lay flowers on Dr. Rosenfeld's grave.

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