Orignal screenplay by
Natacha Rigmoryp
S.A.C.D
n°169173
Copyright n° 00035391
FADE IN
1. EXT. THE IMMENSITY OF SKY AND SPACE. NIGHT. 1
A moonless night, cold and icy.
The immensity of the sky seen from
Earth.
Thuds of bombings in the distance.
The Great Bear constellation.
The entire vault of Heaven covered
by a mist.
Breathtaking ascent towards the Great
Bear, fading in the void and shrouding mist, which denses in an opaque “veil”.
The ascension rate slows in order to
stop to a certain distance of the «veil».
Fixed waiting.
A rumbling slips suddenly into the
icy silence and hurts the « veil » making it quiver.
Immediately, behind the veil,
shadows appear and, noiseless, throw themselves on it, with fury.
A second rumbling, even more
threatening, rings out and jumps on the veil as it would tear it into pieces.
Shadows go wild. The veil creaks and
fights back. Gleams escape of its torn weft, which begins to give way.
BRRRRAAOOOUUUMMM… A shock wave of an
incredible violence fully hits the «veil», which fixes under the impact.
Brutal silence…
The veil begins to shake...
Slowly... Harder and harder... Tenses... Loosens... Tenses again then cracks
brutally.
Deadly silence...
Suddenly, in an outburst of
shouting, yapping and growling, an endless horde of various and numerous forms
of translucent ENTITIES disappears into the break in the night.
The horde swoops towards earth more
or less tinted by regular intervals of glowing red explosions, then, quickly,
splits into numerous legions, which break out and spread on its surface.
2. INT. NUN CELL. NIGHT. 2
In a little austere and bare nun
cell, an old WOMAN wakes up with a jump. Mouth half-opened, she stares in the
darkness with inexpressible fear.
She leans on her elbows, waits a
moment… Then… Sits her back against the pillow, joins her hands, bends her head
and begins to pray.
An entitY
appears suddenly from the ground, in the middle of the room. It contemplates
the scene, then, goes threatening towards the woman.
On the alert, the woman raises her
head.
The entity stops at a few
centimetres of the woman’s face.
The old woman stares in the
emptiness of the night… Waits a little and… Prays again.
Gradually, a soft and diffuse light
wraps her.
Surprised the entity moves back and
looks at the woman with a nasty eye. All scales dressed, it escapes as if
chased out by the light coming from the praying woman.
3. ARCHIVES. 3
A quick succession of shock images
which, in their major part, comes from documentaries. On these, entities are
seen.
Battle’s scenes:
1943, Ruhr’s Valley Battle:
An Avro Lancaster MK10, of the RAF
617’s Squadron, lays pitifully on the stomach, cockpit in fire.
A wounded MAN, with photo equipment,
climbs out of the shell and crawls on the ground to a ditch in which he lets
himself fall.
The war rages not far from him.
In a mist, wincing from pain and
fevering, the man sees entities sliding above him. In shock, he tries to stand
up and faints.
Indo-China, Algeria, Vietnam, The
Gulf War, Burundi, Rwanda, Ex-Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Chechnya...
Hiroshima.
(CONTINUED)
3 CONTINUED 3
Entities prowl.
Different concentration camps:
Auschwitz, goulags, harkis, Bosnia, Kossovo...
Biafra, Bangladesh, Romanian
children...
People dying of diseases: Aids,
cancer...
The human degeneration by
prostitution and drug’s addiction.
Entities spin and take possession of
certain humans.
Dictators: Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse
Dong, Franco, Pinochet...
Exile of the Dalaï Lama
Animal experimentation Laboratories:
The suffering of agonizing animals.
Slaughterhouses: Animals are
slaughtered, one by one, in the general indifference of the butchers and others
employees.
Entities observe and wait like
vultures.
The WTC. The first tower
collapses... Dust and cinder... Here and there, stunned passers-by. Some
running firemen. Entities slipping by thousands into the desert streets.
4. EXT. STREET. DAY. 4
A thick blanket of volcanic dust and
cinder covers the streets. No one can say if it’s day or night.
A tall woman, shoulder-length blond
hair, about thirty-five, a handkerchief on her face, appears suddenly in this
surreal atmosphere. She climbs a steep alley, a camera around her neck and a
bag slung across the shoulder.
Here and there, first aid workers
with anti-dust masks and helmets evacuate latecomers and recalcitrants.
A strange silence disrupted by a
constant rumbling…
The woman stops and takes photos of
an eight-year-old whiny girl, knelt down by a man who is lying on the ground.
He has a wounded head and bleeds. The little girl shakes him softly but he
doesn’t react.
(CONTINUED)
4 CONTINUED 4
First aid workers run towards the
child.
Close voice blusters…
The woman looks around her and
listens out… Then, she adjusts the handkerchief on her mouth and begins to run
towards the noise.
At the top of the alley, she notices
two FIRST AID WORKERS trying to reason a fifty-five year old brown-haired MAN
who yells angrily. A gun in his right hand, he also holds a five-year-old
crying BOY close to him.
5. EXT. STREET. DAY. 5
Suddenly, the man fires at random…
The two first aid workers step back, on alert.
The woman shelters in a recess,
adjusts the zoom and snapshots the scene.
Two entitIEs, that nobody seems to see, prowl about the house.
One of them takes position in front
of the door so as to keep the access, the other enters by the window, slips
slowly around the man and the kid, then goes out to the two aid workers and
turns provocatively around them, playing this little game several times.
You
are risking the boy’s life. Do you understand?
The man hesitates. The entity behind
him straightens furiously up.
Snapshot sound.
(Moving slowly)
Leave
me the child…
In a split second, the man regains
his self-control. The entity seems to push him to react. He throws back the
kid, takes aim and fires.
(CONTINUED)
5 CONTINUED 5
At the same time, the second entity,
which was in front of the door, rushes at the aid worker 2 and hustles him. The
man collapses.
The presence of both entities is
totally unnoticed.
6. INT. CAB. DAY. 6
The aid worker lies on the ground…
His friend tries to help him… The man at the door looks at the scene
contemptuously… The kid sits hunched in a corner.
The young woman stares pensively at
the black and white photo she has taken.
7. EXT/INT. Publishing
house. DAY. 7
The young tired woman takes her
luggage out of the cab, slams the door and turns towards the façade of a
publishing house.
She contemplates the building for a
while then walks towards the entrance lobby.
Inside, she nods to the PERSON who
is at the reception desk and aims to the elevators.
One of them is wide opened. The
woman enters, puts down her luggage and pushes one of the buttons.
The door shuts. The elevator slowly
begins its way up.
The woman, daydreaming, plays with
her pendant: A deep black tourmaline.
The elevator opens on an almost
empty room.
She takes her luggage and walks
towards the other side of the vast room. The few people she sees don’t pay any
attention to her.
Stopping in front of the first
office, she knocks gently and pushes the half-opened door.
A small and stout MAN, about fifty,
with chestnut hair and a gloomy look, is sitting in front of his computer. He
raises his head, surprised.
(CONTINUED)
7 CONTINUED 7
Hi
Max!
(Standing up to welcome and relieve her)
What
are you doing here? Didn’t you talk to Boris?
THE WOMAN
(Taking off her jacket)
I
just arrived from the airport. I didn’t inform anybody, even Boris. I ruined my
cell.
How
did it go?
It
was tough, but I’m fine… I took some good pics… (She sits down on an armchair, in front of the desk, takes out a large
envelope from her bag and hands him) Here you go… The rolls and some prints
made while waiting for the plane.
Max takes the envelope.
Why
did you develop them?
Just being
curious!
Max opens the envelope, takes out
the pictures and has a look at them.
Hum,
they’re good… Are you up for coffee?
(CONTINUED)
7 CONTINUED 7
No
thanks, I just wanna sleep. This afternoon I have to pick up my dog and I’ll
take him to the Reservoir. You know, I’m leaving tomorrow for Switzerland to
visit my parents.
Max moves to a reproduction of
Cappa’s « Spanish Militiaman », framed on one of the walls.
Uncomfortable, he looks at the frame without seeing it.
Fucking
photo! The whole world has bought this trick!
Surprised, the young woman stares at
him.
(Looking at the reproduction stubbornly)
Listen!
I have very bad news... (Turning towards
her)
She shows a pack of cigarettes on his
desk.
May
I?
Max nods. Elsie, takes the pack,
gets out a cigarette and lights it.
I’m
all ears!
It’s
not easy... I called many times to tell you to come back, but with this fucking
volcano... All the lines were cut and the cell phones didn’t go through... I’m
sorry, but your parents had a car crash...
(CONTINUED)
7 CONTINUED 7
Oh
my God! What happened? ? ?