Eye In The Sky

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A scraping sound as the door of a small brick oven opens.

FATIMA MO’ALLIM, early 30's, slender, Somali, reaches in and

places loaves of unbaked bread into the wood-fire oven.

A worn blue headscarf - a hijab - is wrapped around her head

to cover her hair but still reveals her beautiful face.

FATIMA runs a small home bakery business within the walls of

the family compound.

The bakery opens onto a sandy courtyard that surrounds a

small rough brick home with a corrugated sheet metal roof and

a separate, small roughly constructed bicycle workshop.

There are bicycles and bits of bicycles everywhere.

FATIMA’S husband, MUSA (30's) sits on a crate amidst the

bicycles he repairs putting the finishing touches onto a home

made “hula hoop” made of black PVC tubing.

His young daughter, ALIA, 10, watches with impatient

excitement as he inserts a plastic connector into the tube to

join the two ends in a hoop.

ALIA:

ALIA (CONT’D)

Is it done, Papa?!

Weli ma dhameyn miyaa Aabe?!

(Welli mah dah-main meeyah Ah-

be?!)

MUSA MUSA (CONT’D)

Patience, Alia... Dulgaado, Alia...

(Dul-gaar-doh, Alia...)

She fidgets with anticipation.

ALIA:

ALIA (CONT’D)

Do you like the colors I

Maka heshay kalarka aan

used?

isticmaalayo?

(Maka heh-shay kalarka aan

iss-tih-maa-la-yo?)

The tubing has been decorated with bright twists of

electrical tape that form rings of colorful patterns.

MUSA MUSA (CONT’D)

Very pretty... Aad iyo Aad La'Jacleey...

(Aad iyo aad lah-gel-lay...)

YELLOW SHOOTING SCRIPT 12 September 2014 2.

Scattered around the yard are half a dozen discarded hoops of

different sizes and colors.

ALIA ALIA (CONT’D)

This is my best one ever! Kani waa midka aan weligeyga

Jeelaandoono!

(Kani waa midka aan weli-gay

ist-ti-male-donno!)

MUSA smiles, and hands her the hoop. ALIA takes it. She

swings it over her body and around her waist - and SPINS it.

She swings her hips, making the hoop swirl around her body.

ALIA ALIA (CONT’D)

Look, Mama! Hooyo, Fiiri!

(Hoy-yo Fee-ree!)

FATIMA looks out into the yard at her and smiles.

As ALIA continues to spin the hoop, the CAMERA RISES UP over

her and continues to rise, higher and higher, until we are

seeing:

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW of the compound within the surrounding

neighbourhood setting.

Their home is in a Somali Militia controlled neighbourhood of

Nairobi. The sun has just risen, but people are already on

the move.

Beyond the safety and privacy of the walled family compound,

militia hang out on street corners and guard unofficial

checkpoint barriers on neighbourhood entrances, making it a

no-go area for the Kenyan police.

Within this no-go area they stop cars and search anyone they

suspect of being a Kenyan security police collaborator.

Four YOUNG MEN drive past Alia’s compound in a pickup truck

with a machine gun bolted on to the back. They set the

neighbourhood tone.

As we rise higher we reveal that the whole area is a rabbit-

warren of streets, shops and market stalls.

We FADE IN our TITLE:

EYE IN THE SKY:

Over this we become faintly aware of the low pulse of deep

bass music...

CUT TO:

YELLOW SHOOTING SCRIPT 12 September 2014 3.

2

INT. BEDROOM - POWELL’S HOUSE - SURREY - NIGHT 2

COLONEL KATHERINE POWELL lies awake in bed. Her husband SIMON

sleeps beside her in an eye mask.

ON SCREEN:
SURREY, ENGLAND - 03h15

The thud of music is coming from another room: Quiet, but

loud enough to be irritating once one becomes aware of it.

POWELL has become aware of it and it is now irritating her.

She gets up.

3

INT. LANDING - POWELL’S HOUSE - SURREY - NIGHT 3

POWELL, in her pyjamas, exits her bedroom, crosses the

landing and stops at the bedroom from where the monotonous

bass is emanating.

She stands for a moment, wondering whether to enter the room.

She decides against it.

4

EXT. ALIA’S COMPOUND - EASTLEIGH - DAWN 4

ALIA swings her hips as the hoop whizzes around her body.

5

INT. KITCHEN - POWELL’S HOUSE - SURREY - NIGHT 5

POWELL, still in her pyjamas but now also in slippers and a

dressing gown, enters the kitchen.

A Labrador dog, Jesse, gets up out of a basket.

POWELL pats the dog’s head, goes to the kitchen tap and

drinks some water. A routine.

6

EXT. GARDEN - POWELL’S HOUSE - SURREY - NIGHT 6

POWELL, with Jesse following, exits the house. She walks

across the garden to an office ‘shed’ and unlocks a bolted

door. She goes inside.

7

EXT. ALIA’S COMPOUND - EASTLEIGH - DAWN 7

ALIA, laughing, swings her hips. The hoop whizzes around her.

YELLOW SHOOTING SCRIPT 12 September 2014 4.

8 INT. POWELL’S GARDEN OFFICE - SURREY - NIGHT 8

POWELL withdraws a secure dongle from a pocket in her gown

and plugs it into a USB port in a computer on a desk.

Jesse knows the routine: he has a basket in here too and he

lies down in it.

The office is full of military books, files, mementoes and

photographs:
her entire military career is in this room - and

we immediately understand that this is where she lives out

her life. The house is just where she sleeps.

While her computer boots up, POWELL glances at a large pin

board on a wall beside her desk:

It is covered in hand-written notes and SURVEILLANCE

PHOTOGRAPHS taken in various foreign locations of WANTED

HVI’s - High Value Individuals.

The faces are mostly Somali, but we also notice a young

British Muslim student named RASHEED HAMUD, and a young

American named MUHAMMAD ABDISALAAM. (Note: It does not matter

whether we know their nationality at this point, but their

dress is clearly western.)

One photograph in particular stands out from the rest:

A WHITE WOMAN wearing a deep blue head scarf (a hijab) which

covers her hair. The name SUSAN HELEN DANFORD appears beneath

the picture, as well as the name “AYESHA AL-HADY.”

Another picture shows Danford without her hijab. She’s an

attractive woman in her early thirties.

In yet another she is with a man named ABDULLAH AL-HADY - who

we will learn is her husband.

Still other pictures of her show her in various foreign

locations. A few copies of different PASSPORTS show her image

with different names: ALLISON WEST, REBECCA SUTTON.

Below the images of Danford and Al-Hady are dozens of other

YOUNG FACES - some Western dressed, some local Somali

fighters with weapons.

Some have been inked out in red.

POWELL stares at the image of Danford for a moment.

Then her computer BLEEPS and she turns to check her in-box.

An email message comes up with A PICTURE OF A YOUNG ARMY

CORPORAL in a wheelchair wearing PROSTHETIC LEGS. We read:

YELLOW SHOOTING SCRIPT 12 September 2014 5.

Dear Colonel Powell

The new legs are good. I can walk to the shops, but I don’t

see the point in doing that, or in doing anything.

Captain Kirby has suggested...

She scrolls to the end:

... to be honest, I wish I had died.

Corporal Shane Allen.

Powell sits staring blankly at the picture of the crippled

soldier. She is, for a moment, lost. Then she begins to type

a reply.

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