The Power of One Page #6

(beat)

... with all due respect.

29.

Marais fixes PK with a stare. PK's eyes meet his evenly,

unwavering. Maria enters.

MARIA:

Papa, would you like coffee in the

library or the parlor?

MARAIS:

(pleasant)

The library, mein leib.

Maria smiles at PK and exits. He leads PK towards the

library.

MARAIS:

I can't figure out if you're

brave or foolish.

PK:

Why is that, sir?

MARAIS:

You come here to ask for permission

to see my daughter. Correct?

PK:

Yes, sir.

MARAIS:

And knowing who I am, what I stand

for, do you think this sort of

discussion is going to put that

request in a favorable light?

PK:

I thought a man of your intellectual

reputation wouldn't want his

daughter seeing someone who didn't

think.

MARAIS:

Let me give you some advice then.

You're right. I admire a keen

mind. But intellectual reputation

or not, I am first a Marais, a

member of the Volk.

MARAIS (CONT'D)

And if you're trying to impress a

member of the Volk with your

intellect, don't do it espousing

liberal ideas picked up in an

English private school.

30.

PK:

These ideas I picked up somewhere

else.

Marais opens the library door.

MARAIS:

(joking)

No doubt from an expert on race

relations.

PK:

Actually, sir, from an expert on

cactus.

CUT TO:

40 EXT. ROCK OUTCROPPING - DAY 40

A brilliant African sun beats down on the veldt below.

On the rock, a seven-year-old PK sits looking somewhat

sadly over the landscape. A long shadow covers him.

The CLICK of a CAMERA is heard. PK turns, shielding his

eyes with his hand against the glare of the sun to a

tall, white-haired figure, shirtless, in hiking boots

and kneesocks, holding a box camera.

DOC (FIGURE)

Ja. Perfect. You will excuse me,

please.

DOC, speaking in German-accented English, moves off from

the sun's glare down to PK's level. On his back is a

knapsack with a cactus sticking out of it.

DOC:

This I do not normally without

permission do, ja? But to catch

the expression. After all, it is

the expression that is important.

Ja? Without the expression the

human being is just a lump of meat.

You have some problems, I think.

I am Professor Karl von Vollensteen.

Doc clicks his heels together and bows his head slightly.

PK:

I'm P.K.

He holds out his hand. Doc takes it.

DOC:

Such a young person with such an

31.

old expression. I think we can

be friends. Ja?

Eighteen-year-old PK narrates.

PK (V.O.)

That was how I met Doc, as he

insisted I call him. A chance

meeting between a directionless

seven-year-old boy and an old

German professor out collecting

cacti on the African bush veldt.

(pause)

So began my education.

Doc and PK walk the veldt across craggy mountain trails,

down dry river beds, through the jungle, always collecting

cacti and aloe samples, Doc always talking, always

explaining.

PK (V.O.)

Doc believed the brain had two

functions and that the South

African public school system

unfortunately dealt with only one.

DOC:

The brain, P.K., has two functions.

It is the best reference library

ever, which is a good thing to

have. Ja? But also from it comes

original thought. In school you

will get all filled up with the

facts. Here your brain will learn

where to look, how to look, how

to think. And then you will have

for yourself all the brains that

have ever been.

Doc and PK sit high up. PK watches the endless animal

migration below while Doc points things out across the

landscape.

PK (V.O.)

Doc knew everything. He had a love

of learning. But his real passion

was centered around two things -

music and cacti.

CUT TO:

41 EXT. DOC'S HOUSE 41

PK and Doc walk up a steep road toward Doc's house which

sits on top of the hill, both carrying cacti-filled

32.

packs.

PK (V.O.)

Until he was fifty, Doc had asuccessful career as a concert

pianist all over Europe. On his

fiftieth birthday he gave it allup and moved to South Africa.

From that point on it was all

cactus.

CUT TO:

42 EXT. CACTUS GARDEN - DAY 42

Behind Doc's simple, whitewashed cottage is a magnificent

cactus and aloe garden filled with the samples Dochas collected for years. PK and Doc plant anotherspecimen. Doc photographs it. PK records its genusin a notebook.

PK (V.O.)

Every specimen Doc found would becarefully photographed andcatalogued.

CUT TO:

43 SUNSET 43

Doc an PK walk through the cactus garden.

DOC:

If God would choose a plant torepresent Him, I think He wouldchoose of all plants the cactus.

This one plant has all theblessings He tried but failed togive man. It is true. Look.

The cactus is humble but not

submissive. It grows where noother plant will grow. The sun

bakes its back, the wind rips itfrom cliffs, or drowns it in the

dry desert sand. Not a complaint.

In good times or bad it willstill flower. It protects itselffrom danger.

Doc touches a cactus needle.

DOC:

But it harms no other plant. It

33.

has patience and solitude and

modesty. In Mexico there is a

cactus that blooms once in a

hundred years and then only at

night. That is saintliness of

the highest order I think. Ja?

From cactus comes medicine to

heal the wounds of men and little

buttons if you eat one you can

touch the face of God or stare

into the mouth of hell. It is

the plant of patience, solitude,

love, and madness. Modesty,

beauty. Toughness and gentleness.

Of all the plants I think it is

closest to God. Ja?

PK (V.O.)

Doc was a hard man to disagree

with. So when he decided I must

spend as much time with him to

remedy the flaw in my educational

environment I didn't argue.

CUT TO:

44 INT. GRANDFATHER'S PARLOR 44

Shabbily-genteel, Doc sits in his Sunday best, a cup of

tea on his lips, talking in earnest to PK's pipe-

puffing, also shabbily-genteel grandfather as PK looks on.

PK (V.O.)

Appealing to my grandfather's

stoic belief in the primacy of

European culture in all its forms,

Doc offered to instruct me in

piano in return for my helping

him locate and gather his precious

cacti.

CUT TO:

45 INT. DOC'S COTTAGE 45

Doc and PK practice on a beautiful Steinway, so grandly

out of place in Doc's simple abode.

PK (V.O.)

As a student of music I was never

more than adequate, something I

suspect Doc knew from the start.

It is the love of music that is

most important, he would tell me,

and I would believe him.

34.

CUT TO:

46 EXT. JUNGLE 46

Doc and PK wander through the jungle looking for flora.

DOC:

Everything fits, P.K. Nothing isunexplained. Nature is one bigchain reaction. Everythingdepends on everything else. From

the smallest to the biggest.

Always in life an idea startssmall like a tree.

Doc shows PK a small tree with an even smaller vine

attached to it.

DOC:

This tree can grow so high it cantouch the face of the sky. But

this little vine can choke it and

keep it small. Most people arelike these vines. Afraid of new

ideas. Afraid to let things grow.

Doc rips the vine away from the tree.

DOC:

Always listen to yourself.

Follow your own idea. If you arewrong, so what? You learn

something. And with learning you

grow stronger. And if you areright at the beginning? An even

bigger bonus.

CUT TO:

47 EXT. VELDT - DAY 47

Doc and PK move alongside the great herds.

PK (V.O.)

I roamed the kloofs and ridges,

the dry riverbeds and junglefloors with Doc for over a year,

learning more than I realize eventoday.

(pause)

I also played a lot more 'GodSave the King' due to my newmusical celebrity.

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