Saturday, January 30, 2010

Funny Scene II: Backlash (part two of four)

JAMES

Hold on. Hold on.

JAMES sets the monkey down and produces an object, wrapped in newspaper.

JAMES

Here.

The monkey tears free a set of golden set of dog tags. One tag bears the inscription, “If found, please return to the Kiev zoo,” below which is the address. The other tag is inscribed, in block letters:

SANGRE.

JAMES

So?

The monkey puts on the gift, and holds out his skinny alien arm, at the end of which is a fist. They bump fists. We catch a glimpse of CALAMARI, hoisted into a wheel barrow by village construction workers.

JAMES

Get that looked at .

JAMES drops a 10 Dirhams coin on CALAMARI’s heaving chest as the wheelbarrow passes.



EXT: Aftas Surfer Café. Morning.



JAMES eats breakfast. At the communal table are two British surfers. HORACE, who looks as if he is still recovering from ‘shaken baby syndrome,’ and a blonde, dreadlocked surfer elegantly known as, RASTA.

The restaurant’s tables are set up on one side of a road. Officially a road, it is geared more for people than cars, as it parallels the beach and leads nowhere. We see village fishermen hauling their garish, blue wooden-boats up the beach.

HORACE

Bloody hell!

A maintenance van discharging diesel fumes, crawls down the narrow passage where Aftas is set-up. Everyone is forced to interrupt their meals and move the tables and benches against the wall.

RASTA

Doin’ his job I suppose.

SANGRE scampers by. We spot him amidst the beached, village fishing boats, impishly chasing cats. The fishermen, keeping to their schedule, are now either loitering or aggressively playing cards.



JAMES

There are other roads.

The van passes, the tables are replaced and eating resumes.

A short moment later, the same van reappears.

HORACE

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

JAMES

Douche?! Douche-y! Does that translate?

This is funny for the group.

RASTA

I’d say that one’s pretty universal.

Van wedges through. Eating resumes. The monkey is seen in the background, petting a sleeping, one-eyed kitten in the prow of a boat.



HORACE

At six weeks in, takes something like this to remind you how shit their attitudes are.

RASTA

That was unbelievable, really.

JAMES

There’s a certain hostility here



RASTA

Have you encountered the difficulties walking about?



CUT TO RASTA's reenactment.

EXT. DAY BUSY Street, Agadir

Rasta casually walks down a narrow sidewalk bordering a busy street.

He alters his path, expecting the man in the yellow djellaba to do the same.

Instead, the man moves directly towards RASTA. RASTA loses his balance and falls into the hood of a parked hatchback.

END RASTA’s REENACTMENT

HORACE
 
I walk straight at em’ now, bastards.



CUT TO HORACE REENACTMENT:

EXT. DAY: RASTA's same Agadir street 

 HORACE spots a woman bending over a stroller, tending to a baby.

HORACE moves aggressively at this mother and child.

The woman leaps up and manages to pull her stroller away. She stumbles and falls backward onto the street. HORACE does not alter his course.

We see HORACE trying not to smile.

END HORACE REENACTMENT



JAMES

 Good tactic.

RASTA

Myself, I’ve put a stop to saying ‘Salaam’ to the locals.

CUT TO RASTA'S REENACTMENT:

EXT. Evening. back alleys of Taghazout



Smiling, RASTA offers:

RASTA 

Salaam.


 The man leaning in the doorway of a dingy Coiffure, does not respond.
He continues to stare: intense and hostile.

RASTA, moving past the coiffure, smiles and says:

RASTA

Salaam 

The proprietor of the Mohammed Shop turns and stands facing a dark corner of the shop until long after RASTA is past.

END REENACTMENT

 
 
PART THREE OF FOUR TOMORROW
 

No comments:

Post a Comment