Nebraska in the 1880's: bleak, lonely, and far from what you'd expect The Wild West to be. But for a naive Swedish immigrant, the frontier parlor of THE BLUE HOTEL represents the quintessential western fantasy. No one can convince The Swede that his dime-store notions about The West are foolish. He sees murderous intentions all around him and in his terror he turns everybody against him. Inevitably, the Swede attracts tragedy. However, who is responsible? The negative Swede? Or the cliquish hotel guests? Jan Kadar directs this timely story of how society punishes outsiders for being different.

A Union prisoner-of-War, captured behind Confederate lines, and condemned to be shot,, argues with his captors about what lies beyond mortality. Adaptation on an Ambrose Bierce short story.