Destiny

1. 6. What is real?

In so much as dying, the process that ends in death, does not occur in the frame story of the supposed reality – dying here is only symbolically illustrated by the candles that go out – the film blurs the boundaries of life and death, which is clearly visible in the final scene, as described in the end of the previous paragraph.

But in the pretended, unreal episodes of the middle part, meaning the bride's trance journey through the three different cultures, the threefold death of her beloved at the hand of murderers is realistically depicted. This reversal of the levels of reality regarding death and dying holds a strong metaphorical power. The film can thus provoke the question: what is real? Switching from the real to the unreal and vice versa is particularly immanent in Fritz Lang's film 'Metropolis'.