Julieta Page #10

JULIETA:

Can I touch it?

AVA:

Pick it up, if you want.

JULIETA:

Oof! It’s heavy!

AVA:

(Smiling) 10 pounds. Be careful.

JULIETA:

I thought it was terracotta.

AVA:

It’s bronze. At the end I give

them a terracotta glaze that’s the

color of the rocks next to the

lighthouse.

JULIETA:

(Fascinated by the sculpture) It’s

got such force!

AVA:

I try to make the sculptures

compact, so that the wind can’t

knock them over. Like the people

from here. The people from here

are very tough.

Julieta puts the sculpture back on the table

61. REDES. AVA’S STUDIO. ANOTHER DAY.

1985. SPRING.

JULIETA (OFF)

I visited Ava frequently. I liked

to see her working and smoking…

and she liked me to tell her

mythological stories, like I did

with you when you were small.

Julieta is having tea and sitting in the armchair in

silence while she watches Ava work. The sculptress

picks up a handful of clay and starts to mold it. She

has a lit cigarette stuck between her lips. She puffs

on it from time to time without using her hands.

Julieta looks at Ava’s hands, covered with mud,

carefully molding a figure.

JULIETA:

The gods created man and other

beings with the help of clay and

fire. They gave them the

attributes they needed for their

survival. Some were given fur and

others wings for flying. When it

was man’s turn, the gods

discovered that they had no gifts

left, so man was born naked and

defenseless, in the midst of

nature.

Ava listens carefully to her, she had never thought of

the nakedness and weakness of the first man, and she

pities him.

JULIETA:

I’m pregnant, Ava.

AVA:

By whom?

JULIETA:

By Xoan, I was pregnant when I

came from Madrid.

AVA:

(Surprised) Ah, does he know?

JULIETA:

No, I don’t want to put pressure

on him.

AVA:

You have to tell him. Xoan adores

children.

Julieta’s eyes light up.

62. REDES. XOAN’S HOUSE. EXT. DAY.

1985. FALL.

Xoan comes home after a day’s fishing. Cinnamon is

excited and races out to meet him, barking frantically.

Before he goes into the house, when he is at the door,

he hears a baby’s cry. Xoan disappears into the house

in a flash. (Consider this)

63. IN THE DARKNESS OF A TUNNEL. AND INSIDE A TRAIN.

1986. WINTER.

The train is going through a tunnel. The voice emerges

from the transient darkness. Xoan, Julieta and the

baby, two or three months old, are on the train.

JULIETA (OFF)

A few months after you were born,

I took you to your grandparents,

so they could meet you and meet

Xoan.

64. INT. OF TRAIN. EXIT FROM THE TUNNEL.

1988. SPRING (In the change of light, two years have

passed)

JULIETA (OFF)

Two years later, we visited them

again. It was urgent, so that mom

could see you before it was too

late. Grandpa Samuel had taken

early retirement. He was the town

schoolteacher, and he gave it up

to become a farmer. He’d sold the

house where I’d grown up and

bought another in the country…

In the same train, but crossing an exterior landscape,

we see Julieta with Ant.a, two years old. (It’s very

early, day has just broken)

65. A RURAL SQUARE IN ANDALUSIA. EXT. DUSK.

1988. SPRING.

The square of a little Andalusian town. White fa.ades.

Trees that offer shade, iron benches, street lamps, a

melon seller with his melon stall, one or two gypsy

women, little children and one who is 8 years old and

is endlessly plowing through the square on his bicycle.

Old men who share the benches with other townspeople

waiting for the bus. A few terraces with lines of

washing, pots of flowers, a neighbor comes out of her

house. A colonial style church. The square is a

demonstration of the joy, color and light of the south.

Samuel and San.a are sitting on one of the metal

benches. He is almost 60, his skin hardened by exposure

to the sun. He is overflowing with health. San.a is

young and very beautiful, an olive-skinned Maghrebi

woman. They look over at an angle of the frame.

The front of the bus appears round a corner by the

church.

66. RURAL SQUARE. BESIDE THE CHURCH. EXT. DUSK.

1988. SPRING.

The bus crosses the frame from left to right, blocking

out the square. Relatives of the travelers start to

arrive from in front and from behind. The two doors of

the bus open. Carlos, 50, gets out of the rear door. As

well as his own bag he has Julieta’s backpack. Julieta

gets out after Carlos, with the little girl in her

arms. She thanks Carlos for his help, just as she is

hugged by her father, Samuel, accompanied by San.a.

Carlos goes off to the left and effusively kisses a

woman much younger than he is, probably his wife.

Julieta’s group moves away to leave room for other

travelers getting out and for relatives who have come

to pick them up. In this way we also isolate them.

Samuel picks up the backpack from the ground. He hugs

his daughter and his granddaughter, overflowing with

affection.

SAMUEL:

(To the little girl) But who have

we here! She’s got so big! Don’t

you have a kiss for grandpa?

Samuel hugs his daughter and kisses her. In a more

adult tone, but happy.

SAMUEL:

How was the journey, sweetheart?

JULIETA:

Very long! You look so handsome!

SAMUEL:

You’re the two beauties! Look, I

want to introduce you to San.a.

San.a holds out her hand shyly. Julieta offers her left

hand. She’s holding the little girl with her right, so

she makes an apologetic gesture.

SAMUEL:

Have you got a case?

JULIETA:

Yes, a brown one. And the

pushchair.

San.a goes over to the bus’s luggage compartment.

Around her, the typical hubbub of travelers and

relatives. While she talks to her father, Julieta keeps

looking at the young Maghrebi woman.

JULIETA:

What about mom?

SAMUEL:

She’s fine. We’re getting by.

You’ll see her now. How’s Xoan?

JULIETA:

He couldn’t come. He sends you

lots of love. (She lowers her

voice) And that girl?

SAMUEL:

That’s San.a, the girl I told you

about.

JULIETA:

(Puzzled) She’s the woman who

helps you?

SAMUEL:

She looks after your mother and

helps me out with the land. We

were really lucky to find her.

San.a comes back with the case and the pushchair.

Samuel gets between Julieta and San.a.

SAMUEL:

Let’s get in the car, it’s right

here.

67. INSIDE THE CAR. SECONDARY ROAD IN ANDALUSIA. DUSK.

1988. SPRING.

Samuel is driving, San.a is beside him. Julieta and

Ant.a, who is asleep, are in the back seat. The evening

light filters through the windows, creating a golden

atmosphere in the interior.

JULIETA:

Don’t you miss the school?

SAMUEL:

I don’t have time, what with your

mother and the land, the days fly

by.

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