The Power of One Page #5

Cottage, Room 22, Devilliers

School. They don't call it

'Fortress Virgin' for nothing.

You'll never get in.

PK slips his school blazer on.

PK:

You going to take book on that?

MORRIE:

Already have. Three-to-one says

you don't.

PK:

Where'd you bet?

MORRIE:

I took a big position you do.

23.

PK smiles at his friend and starts to leave. Morrie

stuffs some banknotes in his breast pocket.

MORRIE:

In case you have to bail yourself

out.

PK boxes him around playfully and skips out, running the

gauntlet of the celebration outside.

CUT TO:

33 EXT. DEVILLIERS SCHOOL FOR GIRLS - NIGHT 33

Indeed, "Fortress Virgin." Surrounded by a high stone

wall, the school's gothic towers loom medieval in the

African moonlight. A security guard mans the front gate.

PK takes a route through shadows and shrubs, searching

for a way in. He finds one in a tree whose massive limbs

reach over the wall. In a flash PK is up the tree and

over the wall.

CUT TO:

34 EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS 34

PK makes his way through the darkened campus. A few students

and some staff are about. PK hugs the shadows as

best he can. PK passes a statue dominating the quad -a

Boer family from the last century; the man looking forward,

his gun braced for action; the women and children

at his shoulder, brave, resolute.

CUT TO:

35 EXT. SENIOR COTTAGE 35

PK comes up to the cottage where a few girls can be seen

through the windows studying at lamplit desks or readying

for bed. Other rooms are already dark. PK slips inside

the building.

CUT TO:

36 INT. BUILDING 36

PK moves along the hall looking for room 22.

He is about to turn a corner when TWO GIRLS chattering in

Afrikaans come down a staircase. PK backs into a

24.

darkened room to his left. The girls appear in robes

with towels and toiletries and step into the same room.

One flicks on the light to reveal the shower room -- 14

separate cubicle stalls. Still chattering, the girls

disrobe.

37 ANGLE ON PK 37

pressed hard against the inside wall of a stall with a

clear view of the proceedings. He holds his breath as

one of the girls heads towards his stall. Her girlfriend

cautions her.

GIRL:

Those are always cold. Use this

one.

The girl turns away to another stall just in time. The

SHOWERS START. PK allows himself to breathe again. He

exits quickly.

CUT TO:

38 INT. ROOM 38

Maria Marais sits at her desk in a nightgown, working on

a paper, when there is a KNOCK on the door. With her

mind still on her work, she opens the door. Her eyes go

wide with shock when she sees PK. He puts a cautionary

finger to his lips.

PK:

May I come in?

Maria, frozen with surprise, steps back. PK enters,

gently closing the door behind him.

PK:

I'm sorry to scare you.

MARIA:

(nervous)

You can't be here.

She speaks in Afrikaan-accented English.

PK:

I didn't know how else to meet you.

MARIA:

I could be expelled.

PK:

25.

Girls don't usually come to boxing

matches.

MARIA:

We went on a dare. Please.

PK ignores her anxiety.

PK:

Did you like it?

MARIA:

It was...

(beat)

... exciting. You were very good.

PK:

(in Afrikaans)

Thank you. I'm glad I impressed

you.

MARIA:

(surprised)

You speak the Taal.

PK:

I'll speak Zulu if it'll help me

see you again.

MARIA:

I can't.

PK:

Why not?

MARIA:

I need my father's permission.

PK:

Is it hard to get?

MARIA:

Hard for an Afrikaaner boy.

Impossible for an English one.

PK:

How about your permission? Do

I have that?

Maria blushes.

All of a sudden there is a KNOCK on the door. Maria

starts. PK moves quickly behind the door as it opens to

TWO GIRLS.

26.

GIRL #1

We're having coffee upstairs.

Want to come?

MARIA:

I have to finish this paper.

GIRL #2

Come when you're finished. We'll

be up late.

They close the door. Maria reinforces it with her body.

MARIA:

Please go.

PK:

You didn't answer my question.

MARIA:

There are plenty of English girls.

What makes me so important?

PK:

The way I felt when I saw you.

He is so direct she can only blush deeper. Her response

is indirect but affirmative.

MARIA:

My father will insist on meeting

you.

PK:

I can't wait.

O.S., the outside door to the dorm opens. A matron's

voice calls out.

MATRON (V.O.)

Lights out, ladies.

MARIA:

Now please.

PK opens her window and starts to climb out.

PK:

(in Afrikaans)

Good night, Maria Marais.

MARIA:

(in English)

Good night, PK.

27.

PK pauses.

PK:

I don't remember telling you my

name.

MARIA:

(smiling)

And I don't remember telling you

mine.

PK smiles back at her. He drops to the ground. Maria

closes the window and watches him scoot across the

campus until he is swallowed by the night.

CUT TO:

39 INT. MARAIS HOUSE 39

An ample house. PAN ACROSS a gallery of oil paintings

depicting great moments in Boer history -- the Great Trek,

an endless progression of oxcarts heading north, the

Battle of Blood River against the Zulu armies, the hanging

of Boer farmers by British regulars. Women and

children herded into a detention camp as their farms burn

in the background. Boer kommandos sniping at a British

column on the veldt.

PAN FROM the pictures TO photographs, sepia-toned, historical,

and DR. DANIEL MARAIS and PK, strolling past the

pictures. Marais points to a photo of a young Boer, turn

of the century, posed stiffly with a rifle in the slouched

hat of a Boer kommando.

MARAIS:

Jan Piet Marais. My uncle. At

22 he led a kommando for three

years before your people caught

him and hung him.

PK:

My people?

MARAIS:

The English.

PK:

I consider myself an African, sir.

MARAIS:

As do I. As do the Zulu, the

Xhosa, the Pongo, the Ndebele.

We're all Africans. But all from

separate tribes, ay?

28.

PK:

Unfortunately.

MARAIS:

Why do you say that?

PK:

Because it's the whole tribal

idea that creates our problems

here in South Africa.

MARAIS:

The problems of South Africa, my

boy, do not come from tribalism.

They come from counter-tribalism.

From people insisting that natural

laws which have been in place and

operating since God's creation,

should be tampered with. Does

the gazelle sleep with the lion?

Does the rhino graze with the

mouse? The separation of things

is not coincidental. Do you think

a Zulu wants to see his culture,

his sense of identity, replaced by

someone else's anymore than I do?

PK:

No, sir. But I don't think he

wants being a Zulu to mean he is

denied the same rights as

everyone else has.

MARAIS:

Which is why civilization is

defined by the ability to live

under the rule of law. Laws

define rights.

PK:

But do they define justice?

MARAIS:

Ah. Justice. The banner behind

which the English marched as they

gobbled up a quarter of the world?

Justice, my boy, is only relative

to who's in charge.

PK:

And how long they stay in charge

is only relative to how well they

dispense that justice...

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