Open ClassicCINEMA
Back to the collection

OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 1568

Destiny

192197 minGermany
FantasyRomanceDrama
Video edition
Internet Archive
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: German.
This copy runs
98:15
Subtitles
Subtitles embedded in the picture

Languages and subtitles

Subtitles embedded in the picture

These subtitles are part of the video and cannot be turned off.

Internet Archive · Fritz Lang · Internet Archive source edition

Synopsis

When a mysterious stranger takes her lover, a young woman confronts Death and asks for his return. She is offered a test involving three endangered lives. Stories set in a Middle Eastern city, Venice and an imagined China turn her appeal into a series of struggles between love, authority and mortality.

Cast

DirectorsFritz Lang

Historical context

Fritz Lang uses a framing story and three episodes to give the same emotional conflict different visual forms. Monumental walls and a chamber of candles connect the intimate loss of one person to an image of human life as a whole.

Inspirations

The tale belongs to a tradition of stories in which love challenges Death. Its foreign settings are stylized fantasies of the period, not reliable portraits of the cultures they depict.

Behind the scenes

Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen and Bernhard Goetzke recur in different roles across the episodes. Sets, double exposures and other visual tricks allow the story to move between everyday spaces and impossible events.

Reception and legacy

The film helped establish Lang's international reputation. Its combination of romantic tragedy and elaborate fantasy remains central to its place in silent cinema.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceWikidata — film identity and creditsBFI — silent films of 1921Instituto Moreira Salles — A Morte CansadaImage: Francisco Tamagno / Wikimedia Commons — Public domain

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 18, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

Audience rating

Loading ratings…

Keep exploring

Collection