The Red Turtle Page #5

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...

A little later.

Seen from a child's point of view, the waves seem much bigger.

The child paddles in the water, uttering little screams.

He pulls in his stomach against the waves, tiny though they are. It's the first

time he's dared to venture into the water.

His father and his mother holding his hand are on either side.

The three of them stop when the water reaches the child's waist.

They look at the horizon and at the great unknown that the child now finds

desirable.

One or two years later.

Seagulls fly over the rocks which make up one of the two ends of the island.

The mother is there, leaning over a crevice in the rock. There's a wild plant

she's trying to pick.

She is joined by the father and the child (who is now about four or five years

old).

The father hands a basket to his wife who puts the plant in it while the child

walks off to the edge of rock.

He looks at the horizon, then at the sea below: a turtle is floating on the

water. The child points it out to his parents in delight.

He sits on the rock to get a longer look at it when some seagulls fly past,

cawing, and cause him to lose his balance.

The child slips...

Then falls down the cliff.

He finds himself in the waterhole, between two steep rock faces, where his

father had fallen a few years before.

The parents are horrified. The father is about to slide down after him, but the

mother stops him.

The child sinks, then recovers and swims underwater, exploring the crevice.

When he resurfaces, his mother gestures at him from the top of the cliff to

turn back:
he should be able to get through the underwater gully.

The child takes a deep breath, then dives down to the depths.

It goes pretty well. He enters the gully, like he's being born gain, then

emerges on the other side of the rocks.

He is swimming up to the surface when he sees the turtle which is now

underwater, too.

The child hurries back up. Did the animal frighten him?

No, he just catches his breath, then goes back underwater.

He approaches the turtle. He tries to swim around it, but the animal does

likewise. They turn slowly around, not taking their eyes off each other. Like a

silent face-to-face in which they discover and get to know one another.

The father is hurrying down the rocky slope when the child's head reappears

above the waves.

He dives to join him and hugs him, watched by the mother who has now

reached the flat rock at the foot of the cliff.

...

Later.

It's evening or late afternoon.

The mother is sitting at the top of the beach.

The child has fallen asleep in her arms, worn out by the excitement of his

day.

The young woman looks at the sea serenely. Then suddenly, she sees

something. She looks, a vague smile on her face. Maybe she even stands up,

her child in her arms, to have a closer look.

Two turtles go past in the distance. We see the tops of their backs and their

heads above the waterline.

Much further away, the moon looks like it is floating on the horizon.

Fade to black

III. 2. Adolescence.

A flock of birds fly in front of the clouds.

They go past the big breadfruit tree up which the boy has climbed. He is now

12 or 13. He is hanging from a branch, as agile as a monkey, and drops a

fruit to his father at the foot of the tree who catches it.

The fruit is heavy. The father puts it down beside him.

But already another fruit falls on him unannounced.

The father jumps back. It nearly hit him on the head.

The father shouts at his son to be careful.

The boy was so involved in what he was doing that he hadn't seen the

danger. When he realizes what happened, he pulls a funny face: half-

concerned, half-laughing.

A little later.

The father and son come back through the fields, weighed down with fruit.

Suddenly, the son rubs his father's head. It was quite unexpected. The father

retaliates.

They put down the biggest fruit and start to run after each other.

They fall down, play-fight, throwing a fruit or two at each other and laughing

their heads off.

Rapid fade to black

One or two years later.

A general view of the part of the island where the rocks rise up at the base of

the crevice. A tiny figure jumps from rock to rock.

We move in closer. It's the boy, he's now about 14.

He runs along, without looking at his feet, in a feeling of total freedom, as if

he knew every stone, every crack in the rock, every slope on this side of the

island.

When he reaches the edge of the cliff, he runs and jumps, diving into the

sea.

It's a perfect, virtuoso dive. The young man's head emerges out of the water,

then he swims off rapidly toward the open sea.

Under the water.

The boy swims just below the surface, above a patch of underwater

seaweed.

He approaches it, brushing against the seaweed with his stomach. It's a

pleasant sensation. The child laughs. Everything is moving and sparkling as

the sun filters through the water and the underwater currents make the patch

of seaweed sway like a wheat field.

The boy swims closer to the seabed. He picks a little bit of seaweed and eats

it contentedly.

...

The young man's head shoots out of the water.

He catches his breath, then glances behind him to get his bearings. The

island is in the background, but a long way away. We may have never seen it

from so far away.

The boy dives in again and swims even further out.

...

Under the water.

He sees an octopus, its tentacles flailing, swimming in front of him.

He has fun chasing it. The octopus speeds up. The race doesn't appeal to it.

The child swims ever deeper after the animal. (The further we get from the

island, the greater the underwater depths become.)

The sand appears. A few coral reefs and starfish.

In the end, the octopus manages to slides its whole body into a tiny hole

thanks to the lack of a skeleton. It's an impressive sight.

The child approaches the hole to have a look, but already his attention is

caught by something else. A gigantic shadow partly covers the underwater

seascape.

The boy looks up. He catches sight of two turtles swimming on the surface

toward the open sea.

The child swims up toward them as fast as he can.

...

On the surface.

The child swims between the two turtles. Further and further out.

He studies them in turn, delighted with their company, then follows them

when they decide to dive.

...

Under the water.

Here, the seabed is too deep to be reached.

But that's not what interests him.

For soon the two turtles join a group of their fellow creatures. There are

maybe ten or fifteen of them.

Babies and adults. Big ones and small ones.

The turtles swim lazily just below the surface, all different sizes and ages. He

has never seen so many.

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