Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

 “When will I die?” That question posed by an innocent carnival goer to a mystic somnambulist opens the door to a tale that severs all ties with reality, one of madness and murder, delusions and deception. Hailed as a German expressionistic masterpiece and instantly recognizable for its distinctive distorted angles, stylized sets and jagged, menacing shadows Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari fuses together themes of insanity, paranoia and illusions set in an off-balance nightmarish realm. Conrad Veidt haunts the screen as Cesare, the murderous somnambulist, whose stalking of victims at the command of the sinister Caligari fuses the spectacle into a thriller. While Caligari set the landscape for future classics from Nosferatu to M, in later years it was also seen as an ominous portent defined by the shifting perspectives and lost values that arose with the spread of Nazism. -TORONTO SILENT FILM FEST.