Asylum

EXT - PRAGUE STREET - NIGHT

A luxury police vehicle travels along a downtown street in Prague with

Western advertisements displayed. Car stops at traffic lights.

INT - POLICE CAR - PAVEL/MIRA/DRIVER - NIGHT

Mira and Pavel are in the rear seats with uniformed Driver up front.

Mira turns to look out of window.

(Pavel Blazek:
45 yr-old Czech Police Chief, smartly attired)

(Mira:
Czech man 50+ yrs, heavy set)

INT\EXT - POLICE CAR - MIRA - NIGHT

Mira notices an unattended Prague Echo newspaper stand which reads,

"FIRE DESTROYS OLD SECRET POLICE H.Q._ It also displays the slogan,

"The Echo - Prague_s English language paper._

INT - POLICE CAR - MIRA/PAVEL - NIGHT

MIRA:

(Subtitles)

Why are there still such headlines?

PAVEL:

(Subtitles)

This press we cannot control.

Americans, I think.

MIRA:

(Subtitles)

You know everyone can be controlled Pavel.

Where are you storing the personnel files?

PAVEL:

(Subtitles)

In a building belonging to the

University in the Old Town.

MIRA:

(Subtitles)

You are quite sure it's secure?

PAVEL:

(Subtitles)

The files are in a sealed room and the

University are under strict orders to

stay away.

MIRA:

(Subtitles)

The storage facility will be ready

within a week, I'll call you then.

Pavel nods and Mira taps the Driver on the shoulder. Mira takes a

envelope out of his inside pocket and hands it to Pavel.

EXT - PRAGUE STREET - PAVEL/MIRA/DRIVER - NIGHT

Show the police car pull up. Across the road is the "ROKOKO_

nightclub with neon sign. Mira climbs out of the car. The police car

drives off. Mira crosses the street away from Rokoko. Show the

entrance to the Rokoko club. TWO armed foot-patrol Police OFFICERS

casually walk past the club.

INT - NIGHTCLUB - DOUG/KATKA/CHRIS/JOSH/HOLLY - NIGHT

A poetry evening is in progress in the dimly lit lounge of Rokoko

nightclub. At the front-centre of the lounge is an overhead red lamp

and a bar stool, beside which is standing Lawrence.

(Lawrence:
Hip-looking American in early-twenties)

LAWRENCE:

....... and yes she wore your bathing

suit, clad and clinging round her sex

and yes I thought of you, when you

were still a bubble of breath and

hope and love,

Show trendy young Western people conversing in groups and drinking

wine & beer. It is crowded with all couches occupied and many people

lying/sitting on the floor. To one side is a PHOTOGRAPHER and

ASSISTANT with equipment set up.

LAWRENCE(OS)

for those that died and never lied;

to your face or heaving breasts

I dream of nightly between damp sheets,

as I run from you and think of Joleen.

Show audience's enthusiastic applause. Katka weaves through the crowd

carrying two beers and a cocktail. A young MAN blocks her path

momentarily and they exchange smiles as she passes by.

(Katka:
19yr-old beautiful Czech girl)

ON LAWRENCE:

LAWRENCE:

Okay....The next one I'd like to share

with you is called, "Revisited."

A camera flashes. Lawrence blinks a few times, shaking his head as he

thumbs through loose papers, dropping one. Show the Photographer

working with equipment.

LAWRENCE (OS)

Old Town Square a maze of cafes

Change shops offer souvenirs

Moving-walks span Charles Bridge

Charging a dollar a ride

Fairy tale castle on the hill

Licensed to Disneyland

And occupied by a dreamer

Directing from an ivory tower

Built from sweat, tears and fear

LAWRENCE (Cont_d)

As part of his inheritance

Not content with money and mortar

Pen, paper and wife

To carry on and tell the tale

He must aspire to greater things

Follow Katka back to a couch and table where DOUG and CHRIS are

sitting.

(Doug:
30yr-old Englishman with rugged, good looks)

(Chris:
24yr-old American, overweight)

Their table is a mess of empty beer bottles, half-full ash tray &

Czech cigarettes. Chris is playing with a baseball. Doug finishes

off a beer and grabs one of the new beers brought by Katka.

FADE LAWRENCE TO BACKGROUND SOUND

DOUG:

Lawrence is getting derogatory again.

KATKA:

Shhhhh, I'm concentrating!

DOUG:

(to Chris)

I think he's jealous of Havel.

CHRIS:

He_s the closest we've got to an intellectual.

DOUG:

What's that? A Democrat with an attitude!

ANGLE a female audience member who is enthraled.

ON LAWRENCE:

LAWRENCE (Cont'd)

And from the dungeon climb

To take a place still warm

Exchanging iron clasps for gold

Rags for riches

Stories yet to scribe for him

A camera flashes.

LAWRENCE(Cont'd)

King of scribes

Were it a monarchy, but no

He must preside

Over and over again

A nation of ungodly saints

Born again with time to die

The death of a thousand evils

And by their hand they'll claim

Others guided a destiny once more

Enthusiastic applause and yells, some people clapping. Lawrence moves

off centre. M.C. gets up from a nearby couch and goes to the front

and checks his clipboard.

(M.C:
Slight-figured American in early-twenties with goatee)

M.C.

Great piece Lawrence. Okay next up is...

Holly.

ANGLE Holly and Josh sitting at a table on which are two glasses of

wine & Western cigarettes. Holly rises from her seat and moves past

Josh.

(Holly:
27yr-old American girl with understated looks)

(Josh:
All-American guy in early thirties)

FOLLOW Holly down to the front as M.C. moves off. Holly sits on the

bar stool back under the red light.

HOLLY:

I'd like to read some prose, it doesn't

have a title yet.

Holly flicks through her notebook.

ANGLE DOUG/CHRIS/KATKA

DOUG:

(to Chris)

Here comes her life story all twenty

something years of it.

CHRIS:

Let's hope it don't take that long to

read.

HOLLY:

As the dawn brings the sun and life to

her body made limp by sleep and the

pleasures of his passion she awakes, and

feels her nakedness against the world and

his body lying still, next to her. Stained

bed sheet and a pillow, heavy from sweat,

are all that remains to validate his

valour in night time combat. But she was

not his foe, that unseen enemy he forced

his might against last night; she was but a

cushion for his blows.

ANGLE DOUG\KATKA\CHRIS & FADE HOLLY SOUND TO BACKGROUND

HOLLY(OS)

No act of love but willing violence

demanded by one and begged by the other.

As life turned to fantasy and reality to

ecstasy a need, so deep no light could

reach, surfaced like a nocturnal creature

unearthed for momentary and glorious

display. Left alone in a rose-tinted

afterglow dimming fast she tasted the

moisture of her body and wondered why

light came to day and such desires to

her pale-skin body.

DOUG:

(to Chris)

Well she sure isn't normal.

CHRIS:

Fresh from the shrink I'd say!

DOUG:

Yeah, group bloody therapy time.

KATKA:

So why don't you get up and speak something,

then we will see who is crazy.

DOUG:

Ooh, well excuse me.

ON HOLLY:

HOLLY:

And now as the window lace filters out

a darkened past she reaches for her body

once more. Her hand glides from breast

to thigh as thoughts of times flow by.

Her nipples awake and race after a conscious

thought of lustful moments in grassy fields

in time to see reality reap the earth and

leave it barren.

ANGLE DOUG/KATKA/CHRIS

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