In Nosferatu, Count Orlok travels toward the fictional German city of Wisborg.
F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film follows the vampire Count Orlok as he leaves Transylvania and travels by ship toward Wisborg. His arrival brings a plague-like outbreak and a series of supernatural events to the German city.
Wisborg is a fictionalized setting rather than a straightforward documentary depiction of a real place. The film’s story was adapted from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, but the names and details were changed in an attempt to avoid copyright restrictions. The character Jonathan Harker becomes Hutter, Mina becomes Ellen, and Dracula becomes Orlok.
Nosferatu is one of the earliest and most influential vampire films. Max Schreck played Orlok, whose rat-like appearance differs sharply from the elegant vampire image later popularized by Bela Lugosi and other performers. A court case brought by Stoker’s widow resulted in an order for surviving prints to be destroyed, but copies remained.