«ZUGZWANG OF OBER LIEUTENANT BRUNO THEVS» Page #15

Interviews of local residents at the mosque, parents sitting by the bodies of their dead children begin. Otto doesn't comment on anything. Bruno doesn't take his eyes off the screen. Seeta stands with her back against the wall, silently wiping her tears.

OTTO:

(loudly)

Bruno! The ISAF coalition prefers to hide this inhuman crime, everything is clear with them!

And what do you personally think about the cynical airstrike?!

Do you also think that such crimes are permissible in the XXI century?! What is the difference between ISAF and the fascists of the Third Reich, who wiped out thousands of cities and villages in your Homeland of the USSR, exterminated 30 million people, branded the German people with curses and eternal guilt before humanity?!

Bruno is silent, shocked, dejected, depressed.

BRUNO:

Otto, how long are you planning to stay in Kunduz? I see a real threat to your life, you should seriously think about personal safety. Scandalous journalistic activity displeases both the ISAF and the Afghan government. Eliminating you by the hands of ISAF specialists or bribed Taliban is an easily doable task.

OTTO:

(sincerely)

I have to finish collecting material about the presence of Soviet troops here. I think it will take a month.

BRUNO:

(with pessimism)

It is hard to believe in your willingness to leave Afghanistan.

94. EXT. THE GARDEN OF THE HOSPITAL - IT'S GETTING DARK.

Bruno and Seeta are sitting on a shady bench in the depths of the hospital garden, tenderly looking at each other, silent.

SEETA:

(breaks the silence)

Bruno, were you born in the Soviet Union?

BRUNO:

(with surprise)

Yes.

(pause)

I was born in Kazakhstan, in Dzhambul. My ancestors came from Germany to Russia in 1762.

SEETA:

(with sympathy)

Is it true that your father died in Afghanistan?

(pause)

Mr. Greenberg informed me about this.

BRUNO:

Really!

SEETA:

And where did this happen?

BRUNO:

Here nearby, in the mountains of Khost Wa Firing.

SEETA:

(with empathy)

I'm sorry, Bruno!

(changing the subject, smiling)

I imagine the astonished faces of my relatives who found out about the courtship of Shuravi's son.

BRUNO:

(with a smile)

Will it make things worse after I'm an ISAF serviceman?

SEETA:

You know, the attitude of Afghans to Shuravi is different, ambiguous.

Yes, the war in the 1980s greatly spoiled it. But there were a lot of good things. My parents tell me that the Soviet Union, before the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, built factories, factories, factories, a large hydroelectric power plant "Naglu", founded a Polytechnic institute in Kabul, laid a tunnel on Salang.

BRUNO:

(with a smile)

So I still have facilitating circumstances?!

(pause)

Bruno takes Seeta's palms in his overworked hands with protruding veins, looks intently into her eyes. Seeta, feels awkward, lowered her gaze, took her hands away, pays attention to the time of Bruno's watch.

SEETA:

(anxiously)

Oh, it's time for me to run!

Bruno escorts Seeta to the door of the hospital, she disappears into the crowd of the corridor.

95. INT. OFFICE SPACE — EVENING. ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING.

TITLE:
KUNDUZ. TF-47 HEADQUARTERS.

Bruno passes by the window of the TF-47 duty headquarters, goes to the office of Oberst Jung, the DUTY OFFICER calls out to him.

DUTY OFFICER:

Ober-lieutenant, Oberst Jung is not in place. In the morning, his son Alfred, a cadet at the Munich Military Medical Academy, came to see him.

Bruno is delighted with the postponement of the report on sending Otto to Germany.

BRUNO:

(with joy)

At least one good news!

96. INT. BRUNO'S ROOM — EVENING. ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING.

Bruno enters his room, sits down at the table, takes out the book "The Great Game in Afghanistan" from the nightstand, starts reading.

HISTORICAL EVENTS FROM THE BOOK "THE GREAT GAME IN AFGHANISTAN".

97. EXT. THE OUTSKIRTS OF ALIABAD — EVENING. DARKNESS. ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING.

TITLE:
THE OUTSKIRTS OF ALIABAD. THE HQ OF KURBASHI IBRAHIM BEK, 1930.

A large hearth is burning, a crowd of armed Basmachi is sitting around, looking at the fire, drinking tea from bowls. In the center, the leaders of the Uzbek and Turkmen Basmatism, kurbashi Ibrahim Bek and ISHAN Khalifa Kyzyl-ayak, are sitting and talking.

IBRAHIM BEK:

(bitterly)

The assistance of Central Asian emigration and local tribesmen has been extremely reduced.

The people are exhausted, people are tired of the war.

Government troops break into houses, empty food supplies, rob, steal cattle, leave people without means of livelihood, burn homes. My detachments are drained of blood, they continue to suffer irreparable losses.

Most of the friendly detachments have been disarmed, some have transferred to the service of the emir.

Those who refuse to lay down their arms are exterminated and executed. In just a month, I lost 1300 warriors killed. The emir demands to witness to him the fullness of the royal authority, to dissolve my army of one and a half thousand, leaving only 200 soldiers.

ISHAN KHALIFA:

(with empathy)

It is already obvious that it is no longer possible to stay in Afghanistan! We have to leave! You just have to choose – to Iran or beyond the Amu Darya.

(pause)

If your proposal to join forces oppose the Soviets is still in force, I confirm my readiness.

IBRAHIM BEK:

The best direction for us is the Soviet territory. Wherever we go, we are required to hand over our weapons everywhere.

In the worst case, there, in our native places, we will hand over weapons to the Soviet government…

Let the Bolsheviks kill us rather than the Afghans!

98. EXT. RUSSIA. PARK-GARDEN — DAY.

TITLE:
MOSCOW REGION, ZUBALOVO-4, GOVERNMENT COTTAGE OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU STALIN I.V.

General Secretary Stalin I.V. in a military cap, military tunic, boots, covered with a plaid sits on a bench and enthusiastically feeds a flock of pigeons. He takes millet from a paper bag and throws it to the pigeons.

At the edge of the bench, shielding Stalin I.V. from the rain with a black umbrella, stands a young slender captain of the NKVD.

In front of Stalin I.V. stands an NKVD GENERAL in uniform, cap, round glasses with a black "brush" mustache, reading a report to Stalin I.V.

NKVD GENERAL:

In the north of Afghanistan, the government forces of Emir Nadir Shah defeated the detachments of kurbashi Ibrahim bek. Ousted by the Red Army beyond the Amu Darya, Ibrahim bek deployed dozens of rear bases in Afghanistan. He gathered and armed a group of 20,000 Basmachi from emigrants and the local population. For ten years, Ibrahim bek, who was not controlled by Kabul, regularly carried out armed attacks on the Soviet territory of the republics of Central Asia, exterminated representatives of the legitimate authorities, terrorized the local population, destroyed food supplies, stole cattle, burned houses.

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