by Ninni Radicini and edited by the editorial staff Inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (published in 1897), the film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau on an adaptation by Henrik Galeen, who reworked the story and the characters (names and characteristics) although this did not prevent a dispute with the Irish writer’s copyright holders, to the point that the destruction of the film was ordered, of which the German director nevertheless managed to save a copy. A famous feature film of the horror genre, Nosferatu is one of the best-known films of German cinematography during the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), characterized by innovations both in the technical sector and in the narrative structures, which determined a historic turning point in the methods of realization and have been an example for the authors of the following generations. In Nosferatu the story narrated and the protagonists are at the center of multiple psychoanalytic and sociological assessments with which we have tried to trace the origins of its conception, hypothesizing references to the contemporary world and metaphors whose density is comparable only to what then happened with science fiction filmography US in the fifties. Together with the metaphysical interpretations, it is plausible that the current developments of the period also had an effect on the choices of the authors. Nosferatu the Vampire – or Count Orlok – could also represent all the powers of the Entente, winners of the First World War, which in Versailles in 1919 inflicted huge sanctions on Germany with economic and political consequences considered the reason for what happened in the next phase German historian. Knock – the real estate agent to whom Orlok turns to buy a house in Germany – can be considered, due to his ambiguity, the one who maneuvers from the outside knowing, better than the others, the characteristics of each of the main characters. Hutter – Knock’s employee who will end up unwittingly facilitating Nosferatu’s intentions – is the representative of the small-middle bourgeoisie who, out of ambition, albeit in a naive way, lends himself to the dark designs of adverse powers. Ellen – Hutter’s wife – represents the citizen who sacrifices himself with the hope of defeating those who want to steal resources from the German people. Nosferatu was born in 1443, the year in which Vlad II (Vlad Dracul) began his further period of government of Wallachia (historical region in the southern area of Romania, south of Transylvania) with the title of Voivode (“Duke ”), until 1447 (the previous phase had been from 1436 to 1442). Vlad II is the father of Vlad III, known as the Impaler, also governor of Wallachia, whose notoriety derives from having used the same methods against the Ottomans that they used against the Christian peoples of Europe. Vlad III is considered the historical correspondent of the literary character of Dracula, although he has more relevant reference to the legends about vampires of Carpathian-Danubian folklore since the origin of Vlad III is historically modified in Stoker’s novel. Transylvania is a central-western region of Romania, with ancient and persistent links with the Germanic world, given that in the 12th century a group of Saxons settled in the area for the defense of the territory which at the time was the southern border of the Kingdom of Hungary (Siebenbürgen is the German name for Transylvania). 1443 is also the year of the Varna Crusade, an expedition of European kingdoms into the Balkans to face Ottoman expansionism, conducted by an alliance of Baltic, Central European and Danubian powers, which ended in […]