A Dry White Season Page #19

BEN:

Ben Du Toit. You have a nice

vegetable garden.

BRUWER:

You mean the area or the produce?

BEN:

Both. What plants are these?

(CONTINUED)

105.

CONTINUED:

BRUWER:

What's the world coming to? It's

herbs, can't you see? Thyme

there, oregano over there, feunel

next to the tomatoes, sage here

and rosemary somewhere. Poor

plants, they re not in their ideal

soil or climate. Next time, I'll

bring some soil from the mountain

of Zeus. Perhaps the old man's

holiness will do the trick.

He throws down the small weeding-fork.

BRUWER:

Come, you are just the person to

sample my greengage wine. I don't

suppose you've ever tasted it?

I'm sure I'm the only person in

the country making greengage wine.

He leads Ben to the two old chairs by the back wall. He

enters the kitchen and returns with a bottle of greengage

wine and two glasses.

BRUWER:

(as he pours)

The first bottle this year, and

you don't have to tell me if you

like it or not. Tell me, did you

ever study philosophy?

BEN:

Not really. I've read a few

books.

BRUWER:

(taking a sip)

Not bad, in fact quite good. Now

where was I... Oh, I was going to

say after decades of philosophy, I

find myself being forced back to

the earth. Do you know, Ben, we're

all living in the spell of

abstractions. Hitler, apartheid,

the great American dream, the lot?

BEN:

What about Jesus?

BRUWER:

Misunderstood.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

106.

CONTINUED:

BRUWER (CONT'D)

(referring to the

wine)

You don't have to finish it.

BEN:

(lying)

It's quite nice.

BRUWER:

Melanie has told me a little about

you. It's not an easy road you

have chosen.

BEN:

I feel I have no choice.

Bruwer farts loudly, Ben is taken aback, but the

Professor continues.

BRUWER:

Of course you have a choice.

Damn it. One always has a choice.

Only thank God you made the choice

you did. But all I want to say

is, keep your eyes open, young

man.

BEN:

That's encouraging.

BRUWER:

We are both Boers, Ben. We know

how hard our people worked to get

a toehold on this land; it was a

good life. Now look at the mess.

It's all systems and no God!

Sooner or later people start

believing in their way of life as

an absolute:
unmutable,

fundamental, a precondition. Saw

it, with my own eyes in Germany,

a nation running after an idea.

Sieg heil, sieg heil. I left

there thirty years ago because I

couldn't take it any longer. And

now I see it happening in my own

country, step by step.

Terrifyingly predictable. This

sickness of the great abstraction.

He farts and sips his greengage wine.

(CONTINUED)

107.

CONTINUED:

Ben is so fascinated by the old man's conversation he

didn't react. He is learning form his old Afrikaner.

BEN:

What you say is very interesting

and important.

BRUWER:

Take for example the way the

government is handling the

electorate; like a bloody donkey.

Carrot in front and kick at the

backside. The carrot is

apartheid, Dogma. The kick is

quite simply, fear. Black peril,

red peril, whatever name you want

to give it.

(pause)

Fear can be a wonderful ally, Ben.

I talk too much, I always do with

younger people, they don't fall

asleep to me.

BEN:

(laughs)

We Afrikaners have to stop to turn

a blind eye and look around us and

at ourselves.

BRUWER:

You are right. We still have

time. History should teach us

about those who regarded

themselves as the chosen people.

BEN:

(standing up

comforted)

Professor Bruwer, may I say I have

needed to hear somebody say some

of the things you said. I still

have hope for our country.

BRUWER:

If you lose that you have lost

everything. I'll get back to the

earth.

BEN:

(shaking hands)

Thank you.

(CONTINUED)

108.

CONTINUED:

BRUWER:

I'll tell that hot-head daughter

of mine that you came to see her.

Ben takes his leave.

INT. LEWINSON'S OFFICE -DAY

Ben and Dan Lewinson are sitting opposite, cups of

coffee in front of them.

BEN:

There is absolutely no doubt that

they were killed in custody.

Those responsible must be

punished, whoever they are, or

whatever their rank.

LEWINSON:

The problem is laying our hands on

them.

BEN:

Tell me, Dan, we lost at the

inquest, what next?

LEWINSON:

The family can file a civil claim.

BEN:

What does that entail?

LEWINSON:

To put it briefly, it means we

have to have witnesses, affidavits

and any information relating to

the arrest and death of Gordon.

We also need similar information

on Jonathan. You see Ben, for

example, Stolz figures in both

cases. That's one link at least.

BEN:

I know what I have to do.

EXT. ROADSIDE CAFE -AFTERNOON

It's lunch time and the working population of Jo'burg

has paused for lunch. Ben and Melanie are sitting at a

table outside. The cafe is on the outskirts of a very

affluent part of Johannesburg.

(CONTINUED)

109.

CONTINUED:

MELANIE:

I didn't think you would want to

have anything to do with me after

that crap in the Ossewa.

BEN:

Why? You didn't write it.

MELANIE:

I'm a journalist, perhaps tarred

with the same brush.

BEN:

No.

MELANIE:

So what happened? I can imagine.

The family, the dominee,

colleagues, neighbors...

BEN:

A distorted photograph and a few

poisoned words and meneer Du Toit

is a leper. That's why I called

on you the other day, I needed to

talk to somebody rational.

MELANIE:

Thanks for the compliment. But

remember, you're an Afrikaner,

you're one of them. In their eyes

they regard you as the worst kind

of traitor.

BEN:

You are an Afrikaner too, and your

articles, in a liberal English

paper?

MELANIE:

My mother was a foreigner, I'm not

pure, wragte Afrikaner. They

don't expect the same loyalty from

me that they demand from you.

BEN:

What kind of loyalty? Blind

loyalty. Until the deaths of

Jonathan and Gordon, I gave all

the loyalty I could give, laager

loyalty. You know, Melanie, we

Afrikaners have always lived in

our laager, we have not seen

what's beyond the mountains.

(CONTINUED)

110.

CONTINUED:

MELANIE:

Has it ever occurred to you that

the Volk may be scared to leave the

laager? That's the downfall of

this country. So, where do you go

from here?

BEN:

We carry on. There has to be

justice.

MELANIE:

Justice.

BEN:

We lost at the inquest, so we

pursue them in a civil action. I

consulted the attorney Dan

Lewinson.

MELANIE:

We know each other well.

CUSTOMER PAGE #'S 107 -110 MISSING

STOLZ:

Mr. Du Toit, if you knew what

we're working with every day of

our lives, and what we're up

against, you would understand

why we have to be so thorough.

BEN:

However you go about it.

STOLZ:

I can understand you're upset

about having your house searched

... but...

BEN:

I wasn't thinking about myself.

STOLZ:

What are you talking about then,

Mr. Du Toit?

BEN:

My thoughts, Captain, I'm sure,

are an open book to you.

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