The Kingdom of Heaven Page #12

57.

EXT. IBELIN. DAY

Establish Ibelin as Balian and his party ride in. WOMEN with

buckets hung on poles are carrying water towards the dry

MELON FIELDS. The population consists of Jews, Saracens, and

Arab Christians. The place is desperately poor.

ALMARIC:

(embarrassed)

Your father was important. His

lands were not.

But to Balian it might as well be paradise.

BALIAN:

I have no importance. It will suit

me just fine.

Entering the WALLED CASBAH area, BALIAN and his party

dismount. PEOPLE stand and stare, keeping their distance. An

ARAB goes on his knees before BALIAN and Balian courteously

helps him up. The ARAB is stunned.

BALIAN walks on, removing his gloves, beating the dust out of

his surcoat. At the steps of the house he stops: An OLD

HOUSEMAN in a skullcap is staring at him, open mouth

toothless.

BALIAN climbs the stairs. The two men look at each other. The

OLD HOUSEMAN searches Balian’s face.

BALIAN (CONT'D)

Yes?

He plucks at the ensign on his breast. The OLD HOUSEMAN

smiles, and kisses both of Balian’s cheeks.

The PEOPLE are murmuring, respectfully.

BALIAN, from the steps of his house, takes it all in. HORSES

are watering.

INT. THE HOUSE. TWILIGHT

The OLD HOUSEMAN pads ahead through the dark, sunsplintered

rooms. Some ruinous furniture, cushions. ALMARIC watches

BALIAN warily (still not knowing this guy) as BALIAN takes in

his house. The OLD HOUSEMAN runs up with a slopping cup of

wine. BALIAN takes it, sips, and keeps walking. He comes to

the back of the house, where arched openings give onto the

oasis, a green and saline-looking pool under blowing palms.

(CONTINUED)

58.

CONTINUED:

Twilight is coming on. Balian hears, of all things, chickens.

Along an ell of the house there are chicken coops.

AN ARAB GIRL, collecting eggs. She turns, sensing that she is

being stared at. She is veiled across. She continues to take

eggs from beneath the hens. BALIAN, caught in a memory,

dissolves in it. We know as he catches his breath that he is

alive again, he could have a life here.

ALMARIC:

My lord, this is a poor and dusty

place.

BALIAN:

Is it.

EXT. IBELIN. MORNING

BALIAN and ALMARIC, chased by a horde of children and some

more restrained adults, are walking though the farm area.

Poor cultivation, dust blowing from cracked dikes.

ALMARIC:

We’ve got Jews...different types of

Jews, I think...Fatmid Muslims, and

the other...

BALIAN, moving along, jumps up on a dike, and continues,

children chasing along.

ALMARIC (CONT'D)

Easter Christians and Roman...

BALIAN stops, windblown, and smiles.

BALIAN:

But mainly, we have no water.

EXT. NEAR THE POOL. DAY

Slightly up from the pool, we see that the pool is fed by a

marshy trickle. BALIAN crouches, looking at the lie of the

land.

EXT. NEAR THE POOL. LATER

PEASANTS are digging, already five or six feet down in the

dampish ground. BALIAN is with them in the middle of the pit,

using a heavy iron pole to slam deep into the earth...both

“sounding” and loosening.

PEASANTS are taking the damp earth and immediately forming

bricks with it.

59.

EXT. NEAR THE POOL. LATER

The well is deeper. Now the walls are shored up with timbers.

BALIAN slams and slams with his iron bar. The men are ankle

deep in seepage, the shoveled earth goes up in leather

buckets on ropes. Suddenly, as

BALIAN leans exhausted...

The water level rises evenly. The diggers look at each other.

BALIAN:

(exhausted)

Right. Stone the well.

As he comes up from the well, the PEOPLE (Jews, Christians,

Saracens) are exultant--and so is BALIAN, at first shy, and

then smiling hugely.

EXT. IBELIN. DAY (VARIOUS)

MONTAGE. Irrigation ditches being dug while Balian supervises

and pitches in. Clay troughs and pipes being manufactured,

molded, and then set in a great kiln. WOMEN working leather

into what may be buckets.

BALIAN moves through it all. He crouches with skll-capped

ARAB CARPENTERS. He draws in the dirt with a stick while the

men nod.

ALMARIC:

They are making lords different in

France from when I was there.

EXT. IBELIN. TWILIGHT

Torches are lit on the rough battlements. BALIAN stares out

at the desert, satisfied, in his home. On the road, a

solitary pilgrim proceeds to Jerusalem on his knees.

EXT. IBELIN. DAY

A commotion among the people. They run towards the center of

some activity. What they see there is wonderful. CARPENTERS,

MEN-AT-ARMS, various helpers, and BALIAN, using brute

strength, as well as a rope passing through pulley on a palm,

are setting upright...a giant WATERWHEEL.

BALIAN:

Brace it, brace it. Almaric, tell

them to brace it!

(CONTINUED)

60.

CONTINUED:

Almaric does. BALIAN makes sure the wheel is secure. He backs

away from the work and sees that...

An ARAB is staring pen mouthed at something OS. More PEASANTS

stare, and then go to their knees. BALIAN turns and sees:

WHIPPETS. They course around in a pack. He looks up and sees:

SIBYLLA, mounted.

She is veiled and with a guard of Turcopole lancers. SIBYLLA

rides forward through whirling dust and light. She wears a

sort of burnoose all her face but her eyes covered with silk.

BALIAN walks towards her, through wind, and, without regard

to his filthiness, bows. Not particularly courtly.

SIBYLLA removes her veil, staring at him.

SIBYLLA:

I am on my way to Cana. That is

where Jesus changed water to wine.

A better trick would to be to

change you to a nobleman.

BALIAN:

In France I used to think that with

a few yards of silk I could make an

aristocrat of any man, so long as

he was useless.

Sibylla laughs delightedly. BALIAN smiles.

SERVANTS rush her considerable, fantastical baggage-train

forward through the casbah gates.

SIBYLLA:

It seems that I ask your

hospitality.

BALIAN:

(holding her bridle)

It is given.

Sibylla smiles and rides through the gates.

EXT. A ROOM AT IBELIN. DAY

SERVANTS attend SIBYLLA. They take her cloak, her “turban” as

she reveals and drops her hair. Her “mask” of office may not

be entirely in place. A servant removes SIBYLLA’s small

velvet shoes. A servant brushes her hair as another removes

her riding gear. A SERVANT unpacks a lead-lined box

of...snow, and puts it into a silver goblet. Sibylla drinks.

61.

EXT. A POOL BEHIND THE CASBAH AT IBELIN. DAY

SIBYLLA, now in loose Arab muslin, comes along the gallery,

SERVANTS with her. She has her silver goblet. SIBYLLA drinks,

and looks at Balian. No dialog necessary. She goes to the

pool, steps barefoot into it, and washes. Her wrists. Balian

looks around at the desert. Sibylla bends forward as a

servant pours water over her hair. She moves forward through

the water, the muslin wet, and hands Balian her cup. She

wrings the end of her muslin wrap, and washes the dust from

Balian’s face. He catches her wrist, meaning: don’t. SERVANTS

are watching.

SIBYLLA:

(smiling, and continuing

to wash his face)

This isn’t adultery, it’s washing.

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