The Making of Lion of the Desert Page #2

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Tomelli, I want you to use

a fast, hard hitting force

and you forget what

Omar Mukhtar looks like.

We're all obsessed by never

having seen him.

Go for his blood.

Go for his circulation.

Go for the revolution that

is inside every Bedouin.

Mukhtar's been fighting turns,

three months we run with him.

The next three months they

are peaceful at home.

Tomelli, no peace.

Take your brother!

The women must hide!

Round up the men.

Those three at the end there.

And...

these two at the back.

And...

Yes...!

That young cur, definitely.

Some of you have conscript,

instead of going three months

...with Mukhtar.

You go one year to useful labor...

while you'll be out of town.

Burn their half

they give to Mukhtar.

Burn half of everything.

It's a bullet wound sir.

You were shot running

with Mukhtar, weren't you?

What have you to say?

What have you to say?

You do?

Well, you brought it on yourself.

Execute him.

Not, not over there. Here!

Let them see it.

In the name of God,

give him time to pray!

You're warned, be careful.

Saleem!

Murderer! Killers!

Aisha!

Aisha!

Mother,

I must do something.

Poor Aisha.

She forgot her veil.

Oh God!

I must do something!

Hameed,

they burned his tree.

I saw what happened,

my brother and Aisha.

And look, my father!

I'm going to Siddik Omar.

You're too young.

It's not your turn yet.

I became old enough today,

mother.

Please God,

I need you.

They must pass through here.

That's our ground.

Out there, that is it.

But you can't hide

a lizard out there.

Siddik Omar..

It's all clear sir.

Check the other side.

Sir, at last we got them

where we want them.

Let's crack it off them,

move it.

Let's go!

They're here.

Mount.

They're running!

Get your foot down!

We've run in a trap!

We must warn Tomelli!

Do you hear that?

Could be Lt. Sandrini, sir.

What the hell is he doing?

Maybe warning shots sir.

No! Stop!

Stop!

Do you see anything?

No, nothing sir.

Nothing.

They're getting away.

We have them in our hands!

Full pursuit!

- Look at those machines.

- Siddik Omar.

We do not kill prisoners!

They do it to us.

They are not our teachers.

He's a boy.

Here.

Tell your general it

does not belong here.

My husband?

I... brought his book home.

Never turned his back on it...

Come here.

- What is your name?

- Ali.

Oh, yes, Ali.

This is yours.

This is your book now.

You tell your mother

to keep it for you.

Do not let him see you

crying too much.

One day they will carry on the fight.

The children should remember us

strong and confident.

Never broken.

Go inside.

Let us go and see

the camp, Ali.

There he is.

This is my friend, Ali.

This is Bu-Matari.

He has a little boy just like you.

He is in Kufr, that's far away,

in the desert.

He misses him. Now,

we have some work to do.

Be careful...

Oh... Is this supposed

to be me? How do I look?

You've to give it back to me.

Otherwise, I cannot read.

You go... you go see.

Let the people work.

Wiped out..

one Lieutenant...

and one scout car...

That is all its left

of a fighting force.

I did not come to Libya to

be stung by Bandits.

Senore Tomelli is one

of our finest officers.

This young boy saved our honor,

he brought back the flag.

But sir... they gave us the flag.

Yes yes yes, you will be decorated with the -

the medal of honor.

Never in my career I

lost a flag.

Gentlemen, I will repeat

one simple fact to you,

Were not merely

fighting Mukhtar and...

200 of his men here or

50 of his men there.

We are fighting a population.

We have Rome to answer to.

I am therefore taking

the first of three final steps.

Strides to eliminate rebellion

in this colony.

It's really quite simple and

should have been thought of before.

I propose to concentrate the Bedouins.

Concentrate them?

Yes, put them behind wire, camps

and keep them there until

we find it prudent or

safe to release them.

No, I don't want any

pity for them.

They have brought

it on themselves.

We will fill their wells,

we will burn their fields,

we will destroy their trees,

we will turn their land brown.

Now, if they cannot live

with it, they'll leave it.

And.. if we meet a resistance?

You answer it promptly with the

old Roman punishment for rebellion:

Decimation.

It is ridiculous to think that

we can fight this war kindly.

We cannot.

We have to fight with authority.

To place half a million

people behind barb wire...

it is a formidable

and majestic undertaking.

And we will do it.

Are there any questions?

General, Bedouins die in cages.

That is an answer, highness.

Not a question.

But sir, won't we...

won't we be making more rebellion.

Not weeding it out.

Gentlemen, if we are to bring the Bedouin

to any sense of obedience,

we must first let the lava flow.

Turn around.

As mutinier and rebels,

you will be decimated.

One... Two... Three... Four...

Five... Six... Seven...

Eight... Nine... Ten...

They've taken everybody.

Who can fight such a war?

Not against armies, but

against innocent people.

Old people will be dying in

those camps and come out.

People will be dying without

fault, without choice.

Or is it our fault

and our choice?

Look what they did.

"Raised the sky up and set

the balance of all things."

It's Siddik Omar!

No!

They will be massacred.

You have a chance to get away,

take it!

Go with Ismail!

Don't think of me!

Go!

Ali!

Ali!

Hurry! Go back!

Up behind me, Ismail.

Up behind me!

Go back!

Go back for that boy!

The horse won't take two.

Ismail knows that.

Hurry up, Siddik Omar!

So, you're the brave young man.

The brave young man

who saved Mukhtar from me.

Why did you do it?

You are young.

You had your whole life

ahead of you.

Tell me, don't you want to live?

Come on.

I want him to live more.

You'd make a fine soldier.

Would you think of joining us?

You are more ruthless

than I am, Prince.

You would corrupt him.

Get him out of here.

Give him what he asked

for, fruit, honey, whatever.

And don't harm him.

Hang him, in the morning.

Does it ever worry you,

general,...

...that in our most casual acts

we make history here,...

...even if it's just a small paragraph

in a newspaper in Rome?

You touched my strength, Prince.

You see I didn't care.

A day in the mind of Rome

is more important to me than...

than a generation

in the memory of Libya.

And what happens, I wonder,

if we are forgotten in Rome and...

we are remembered in Libya?

Don't you worry your

royal head about that.

You'll see, we will

write the history.

Libya is our crown of thorns.

Nonsense.

Libya is a career.

Look at it.

Look at it.

It's always the same. We can never

persue them in the desert.

I must conquer the desert

to march on Kufra.

From here to here.

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