Question: Build a movie plot around this: Where is the military campaign that causes the soldiers to leave the village? Upper Rhineland
Answer:
It's during the Thirty Years War and war and plague are destroying the people of Europe. Vogel (Sharif), a professor on the run from the carnage witnesses the destruction of a village and runs for his life. He stumbles upon a pristine valley untouched by the war.There are no people around the village though everything looks to be prosperous. Vogel falls asleep only to be awakened by the arrival of the army from which he was running. He negotiates with The Captain (Caine) for his life explaining that he can talk to both peasant and soldier. The Captain gives him 48 hours to bring the villagers back. the Captain agrees to winter in the valley instead of returning to his army which is starving and plague ridden.The villagers are opposed to having the soldiers stay but soon realize they have no option. So an uneasy alliance is formed with many bumps along the way. As the Thirty Years War was heavily centered on religion, the Catholic town is often at odds with the Protestant soldiers. When the Captain wants to destroy the shrine which protects the village he bargains with the head of the village to keep the shrine in exchange for the village providing six women to serve as comfort to the soldiers. Plenty of jealousy and possessiveness ensues as the six women are chosen for this task. The village priest promises that the women will not go to hell for sleeping with the soldiers because they have saved the village.The Captain plays a game of dice for the wife of Gruber (the village leader) and loses, but the wife lies and says he actually won (perhaps because she really prefers the Captain or because she realizes the village will be destroyed if the Captain loses.)When the villagers hear that the shrine is being moved they take up arms to fight the soldiers, but Vogel intercedes and claims he dreamed that the shrine had to be moved to save the village. This pacifies the villagers.Meanwhile conflict over the six comfort women leads to an attempted rape (of Inge) which Vogel prevents and then an attempt on the life of...