EXT. SENECA LAKE'S VALLEY, A MOUNTAIN - DAY
MAWA, a 75-year old Seneca warrior, steps over the snow.
Branches break under his two-leather-strip sandal.
Behind him, the blue sky is torn by
vertical clouds.
He wears rags. His face is sieved by frozen
sweat. He
arrives
to the top of the mountain.
The silence is overwhelming. Breathing over the empty space,
he contemplates the shores of
the Seneca Lake.
EXT. SENECA LAKE - DAY
HUNDREDS OF SENECA FAMILIES are sailed in small canoes that
cross the icy waters of the lake.
Naked children follow their fathers inside the canoes.
Union soldiers push them with their muskets, which clash
against their tired bodies.
A dog is rejected from an already
overloaded boat. As
it
sails, the dog jumps on the
water. Other dogs which stood on
the shore follow him. A child
breaks the silence by
calling
the dog:
CHILD
1
Garo!
He escapes from her mother's arms and jumps onto the water to
rescue the dog.
Mawa stares indolent at him.
The child drowns with the dog. His parents look hopeless and
tearless at his child's arm,
lifted before its final
sink.
Some yards ahead, a boat cracks and wrecks before the
indifferent sight of the
soldiers and the Seneca
people.
Their death happens in silence; nobody screams.
Mawa kneels down on the snow and looks at the clouded sun.
MAWA
If you are so merciless as no to
take my life, O Gods! Tear the
stars! Crumble the sky...
He crawls to a near bush. His right arm ends in a stump.
His left hand breaks a branch in two small pieces.
From the sky Mawa looks hidden into
himself. He
outstretches
his arms.
His left hand is bloody. It contains one of his eyes, which
still looks at the sun.
He raises his head. An eye-hole pours a
stream of
blood. The
other eye looks with anguish at
the sky.
DISSOLVE TO:
TITLE CARD
TEN YEARS BEFORE
DISSOLVE
TO:
EXT. SENECA'S CITY-DAY.
Through a wide road Mawa rides his horse,
followed by
a train
of warriors.
FRAZUO and GRAJO, Seneca leaders, trot each one at one
opposite side behind of Mawa.
The former
is a 45-year old
well-built warrior, the latter a
55-year old, slightly
obese
warrior.
They look at each other with mutual hostility.
Beyond them, two numerous groups of warriors escort them.
VERGOW and XEMSUO, Mawa's sons, follow Frazuo.
The road is surrounded by a humongous corn
plantation.
The
Seneca families fence the road that describes a perfect
straight line up to the
Seneca's
city of Makinawua.
Women cry in a loud voice.
Men nod slightly before Mawa.
There is a row of horses before Mawa. Each of them carries a
Seneca warrior's corpse.
A MAN approaches this train and guides a horse out. Four
women take down the cadaver from
the horse, while
screaming.
Behind the horses a retinue of foreigners are
escorted
by
Seneca warriors; they are THE PRISONERS. Their arms and hands
are unshackled. They advanced
pushed by the warrior,
who
struggle to maintain the order
of the row.
JEREMIAS, a 35-year old African man, addresses A WARRIOR on
Seneca
Language.
BERTHA, a 40-year old Austrian woman stares at them.
The warrior throws a leather bag on Jeremias' arms.
Jeremias drinks from the bag and shares the water with many
other prisoners. Amongst them,
Bertha.
She approaches him after leaving the bag on PRISONER 1's arms.
BERTHA
Good man! My two sons have fallen
on their hands.
JEREMIAS
They may kill them today.
BERTHA
You speak their language, don't
you?
JEREMIAS
A few words.
A warrior approaches.
Jeremias looks at Bertha with intensity. She smiles nervously.
JEREMIAS
(continuing;
appeasing)
Keep quiet, madam.
CUT TO:
EXT. MAKINAWA
CITY, CENTRAL
PARK - DAY
At the Seneca town, black and white slaves carry hundreds of
logs--they prepare the burial of
the warriors.
There are about one hundred piles of dry branches.
A cadaver lies on each of them.
Women and children sing in a low tone a mourning song.
The majority of the men, seated on the floor, contemplate in
silence the unfolding of the
scene. They form
surrounding
circles.
Around the center, 40 old Seneca men are seated down. They
conform the Wise Council.
To one side, the prisoners are being sorted by the
warriors.
Women are separated from the men, and them
from the
children.
All of them have been tied by their
wrists.
Mawa, wearing a red and white outfit, comes out from his
tent. He approaches the center
of the scene, where he is
surrounded by eight pyres.
Several priests follow him, amongst them BREGUEWO, a 45-year
old 6-feet-tall Seneca woman.
Each of them bears a
torch.
MAWA
(to all)
The moon has thrice reflected her
silver outfit on the lakes, and
half our offspring has been slew
in the advantage of unequal war.
How pale-men bullets have freed our sons
from the grief we had come to endure day and night.
We, untimely victims of betrayed promise
and survival.
ZUCHO and XINFOORO, Wise-Council members whisper
to each other.
TAMPA, Frazuo's mother, stares at them. His sigh silences
their whispers.
MAWA
(continuing; loud, to
a cadaver)
Now go to the fresh meadow where
our forefathers lie.
Mawa turns his head and the priests kindles some pyres.
Breguewo nods his head and two warriors fetch
two prisoners to
Mawa:
JOHANNES and WALTER.
BERTHA
No!
Frazuo turns around his head and looks at her.
She attempts to run towards Johannes and Walter, but Grajo
cuts her short and brings her back.
Xemsuo unsheathes his knife with his left hand.
Grajo threatens Bertha with a violent gesture.
Xemsuo's right hand presses the blade of a knife.
His hand bleeds.
His face looks intensively at Bertha.
MAWA
During a merciless winter we
embraced and hosted these two
white-brethren who entreated our
shelter.
They crawled naked to us, we
furnished them with deer's skin;
they plead hungry to us, we
fed them with fresh corn and
salmon.
Mawa outstretches his arm towards them.
MAWA
(continuing)
They sold us.
Johannes and Walter are knelt down in front of Mawa.
From the house of Mawa, CRENE, a 19 year-old Seneca
warrior,
stumbles
before Mawa. He is being carried by
two SENECA
WOMEN, who mourn in a low tone of
voice, one to his right, one to his left.
Crene's face, down his nose, is covered by a blood-stained
handkerchief.
MAWA
(continuing; to
Johannes and Walter)
Paying pity with betrayal; love
with envy and wrath.
Mawa unsheathes his knife.
JOHANNES
Father Mawa... They tortured us;
they obliged us to confess.
MAWA
Still. Isn't it fairer to shed
your blood for your protectors?
He turns back and takes off Crene's handkerchief. He has lost
his jaw, and instead a mass of bones and coagulated blood
hangs down.
Walter screams in horror and turns his face away, but...
Mawa grasps his hair and pushes his eyes in front of Crene's.
MAWA
(continuing)
His cankerous breath has dried up
his tongue and darkened his skull.
That reddish liquor poures from
his brain into the white glimpses
of his eyes, and his silent cry
stops the motion of my heart
grim prelude my own death.
He releases Walter's face.
MAWA
(continuing; to Crene)
Crene, a faithful son, whereby
free from the wounds of a
pitiless world.
Mawa stabs him.
Crane's pupils dilate and fade away.
The Wise-Council members look sternly at the scene.
Bertha screams.
Walter looks at her; his face covered by a
cold sweat.
A group of women scream and sing:
WOMEN CHORUS
Go to the everlasting river by the beaver
that raises from this earth to
heaven
Happy the dead will
assuage
your grief
For you shall chase the bear in harmless fields...
Breguewo jerks her head in a
gesture.
Two WARRIORS approach Crane's body which
hangs from Mawa's
arms.
Mawa shines them, and lifting Crane's body walks towards a
pyre.
The two women who were carrying Crane lay tended on the
ground.
Mawa lays Crane's body over a pyre.
He grasps a torch and fires it up.
Johannes looks defiantly at Mawa.
MAWA
(twined in pain; to
Johannes and Walter)
How
in the
swiftness of my
sorrows, a jealous sun claims the
drops from the cave
of Crene's
unburied bones.
Walter looks breathless at Mawa.
Bertha gets rid of Grajo's surveillance
and runs
towards Mawa.
P.O.V. of Bertha as she runs.
Tall warriors cloud her
sigh.
She hears Walter's scream.
She arrives to the middle open circle. Her excitement
vanishes.
Her expression freezes with her mouth wide open.
As a ghost she walks staring fixedly to to a given point.
She stops, raises her head and looks at Mawa.
Mawa looks at her.
Mawa's hands are tainted
with blood.
Bertha kneels down.
Grajo touches her. She faints
and falls.
On the ground Bertha lays face-up over the
stabbed
twisted
cadavers of Johannes and Walter.
CUT
TO:
INT. MAWA'S TENT - NIGHT
Mawa drinks a reddish beverage from an earthen bowl. He's
knelt down on the ground.
Torches light the interior of his tent--about one hundred of
human scalps hanging down from
the roof.
Bertha, with an empty sigh, stands up in the middle of the
tent. A rope hangs around her
neck.
Grajo and Frazuo
look
contemptuously at each other, each one
placed to opposite Bertha's
sides.
Frazuo's
breaths loudly.
Sprawled around the tent are Vergow, Xemsuo, Braguewo, Zucho
and Xinfooro.
Each of them bears a small earthen bowl on their hands.
WARRIOR 2 and WARRIOR 3 stand up at the entrance of the tend--
each one grasps a small spear on
his left hand.
Warrior 2 clutches the end of Bertha's rope on his right hand.
Behind Mawa there is a pile of overheated
stones
placed under
an earthen pot. It contains the
same reddish beverage
Mawa
drinks.
NICTE, Mawa's daughter, a 14-year old
girl, stirs the
boiling
beverage with a wooden-stick.
SILUA, her nanny, a 45-year old Spanish-Seneca woman, fires
up some dry branches and places
them beneath the
stones in a
hole dug beneath the ground
level.
CUMAS, a
34-year
old Seneca woman blows the bellows.
JACA, Frazuo's young wife, sets small
earthen bowls.
Mawa stands up, bowl on his hand.
Braguewo nods her head.
WARRIOR 2 crosses the room and handles out the end of
Bertha's rope on Mawa's
right hand.
Warrior 2 returns to the tent's entrance.
MAWA
(to Bertha)
It would be unwise to start
intestine war for the charms
of
a slave, Bold Grajo; would
you forsake the candour of
battle to struggle for a
woman?
Bertha raises her head.
Jaca looks at her.
A glimpse of hate fires up on Bertha's eyes, but it vanishes
as she raises her head and meets
Jaca's
eyes. Bertha fixes
her sight on the
darkness of
the space.
GRAJO
I did. I also spared her life by
imposing my force over the lust
of
our warriors. It happened at the
battle's outset, over the cliff,
when our forces where compelled
to
pursue the enemy's retreat.
MAWA
Wise Braguewo judges Grajo
hasn't
dishonoured his own name. I
agree.
BRAGUEWO
Our issue, Father Mawa, is to
decide whether or not he may add
this strange to his train as his
concubine. Brave Frazuo
claims
privilages
over the slave as
well.
MAWA
(to Frazuo)
How do you support your demand?
BRAGUEWO
By the strength of my arm alone,
which imposed havoc amongst the
Mohicans, and pushed back the
Englishmen behind the thunder of
the Niagara.
Mawa handles his earthen-bowl to Grajo,
who
immediately
drinks from it.
Frazuo represses a cry of fury
and kneels down.
MAWA
Repress your fury against us,
matchless Franzuo,
and
addressed
it against the Spaniards and the
French settlements, who, like a
viper poisonous blister, infect
the peaceful shores of Mississippi.
(to Grajo)
Your eye distinguishes friend from
foe; cowardice from betrayal, and
those English dogs have been
smashed under the edge of your
spear. Now take your reward and
enjoy the nightly pleasures of a
servant's lust.
Mawa handles out the end of the rope to Grajo,
who
pulls
Bertha out of the tend.
Bertha looks intensively at Franzuo.
Nicte, Silua
and Cumas walk around the room pouring the
reddish beverage on people's
earthen bowls.
Bertha's leg comes out of her rags.
Franzuo looks at her naked
skin. He stands up.
Grajo stops his exit.
FRAZUO
(to Mawa)
Though I praise Grajo as well as
you, I disapprove your
indifference towards my merits.
Mawa stares at him with fury.
Vergow and Zucho stand up from opposite points of the
tend.
Mawa unsheathes his knife
Franzuo kneels down in front of
Mawa.
ZUCHO
Forgive, father
Mawa, Frazuos'
fearless heart. All the warriors
gathered in this tend, approve
your wise decisions. But Frazuo,
as me, as any member of the wise
council, know that your term of
government has expired. After
ninety years, the strength of
your
body can not warrant the
foibles of your mind.
MAWA
Tradition dictates I must finish
this war!
Mawa looks at each of the members in the tend.
Everybody avoids Mawa's sight, but Xemsuo.
Mawa copes with Braguewo.
BRAGUEWO
Tonight the wise council has asked
me to beg you, for the sake of
civil peace, to choose a young
warrior as our chief.
MAWA
So, you too Braguewo...
Mawa pours the liquid of his vowl over the
floor.
MAWA
(continuing)
Tomorrow we'll organize a sally
against the Spanish dog. The
warrior that slays and cuts the
scalp of the Spanish General will
become the new chief. If nobody
breaks into the enemy's camp I
will remain in my post,
notwithstanding.
CUT TO:
EXT. MAKINAWA
CITY, CENTRAL
PARK - NIGHT
The full moon gleams on the sky. A wolf moaning is
heard.
GUAVA, a 22-year old Seneca woman, unfolds a thick cover-
sheet around the wooden
structure of the tend--it is
placed
on the space where the burial
happened early in the
day.
Xemsuo ties the cover-sheet to
the logs with pieces
of short
leather cord.
CALIO, their 7-year old son, plays besides them with spears
and skulls.
They are surrounded by many other
couples that do the same.
CALIO
Father Mawa could have handle out
his power to you. This contest is
a hard bone to gnaw.
XEMSUO
Father Mawa proves a seasonable
wit, Calio.
There is
division in
the wise council. Each one has to
prove to be worthy of his own
blood.
Calio runs to a close tree.
Xemsuo stands up looking at
him. Guava embraces him.
GUAVA
More
sense, less destruction.
Following the councils of Father
Mawa civil war will happen. I
still feel pity for that
childless
mother.
XEMSUO
Another bad omen?
Guava looks smiling at him.
XEMSUO
(continuing)
Let it be the proof of my
relentless fury against my
enemies.
Calio returns with a spear,
which Xemsuo skillfully
grasps.
He aims at a tree.
XEMSUO
(continuing)
My son, learn from me
authentic valor
and strength;
luck from others.
The spears tears the space.
It pierces the tree.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPANISH CAMP, BEFORE THE FENCE - DAY
A long wooden wall spreads out over a small meadow.
Yards ahead the thickness of the wood
surrounds it.
Heavy cannons look over the wall.
SPANISH GUARDS 1 and 2 march from the camp
towards the
woods.
SPANISH GUARDS 3 and 4 march from the woods towards the
camps.
From a wooden tower, SPANISH GUARD 5 looks at the guards
approaching to each other.
P.O.V. from the Spanish guards 1 and 2: S.
Guards 3
and 4
hide their face under the shadow
of their huts.
S. guard 5 is pierced by a flying arrow.
S. Guard 1 look at the tower. He looks at
the S. Guard
3 and
4.
S. Guard 3 and 4 aim at them with their muskets.
They shoot.
The small meadow is covered by hundreds of Senecas
that
rapidly advance towards the wall.
S. guards 4 and 5 throw their huts: they are Xensuo
and
Grajo.
They run towards the wall.
Mawa come out from the woods.
Jeremias and other slaves push a heavy English cannon up the
top of a small promontory.
The Spanish cannons implode.
Three Senecas are smash by a cannonball.
Other men step over their mingled bodies.
Cannonballs fly over the sky.
EXT. SPANISH CAMP, INSIDE THE FENCE -DAY
GENERAL ARBOLEDA, a 55-year chubby man, walks up the stairs
that communicate the ground
floor with the mezzanine
where
the cannonballs are
placed. He wears a clean
uniform and
handles a gleaming sword.
SOLDIERS come out from the garrison; some are tightening up
their clumsy outfits, others
bear weapons to the
mezzanine.
Arrows with fire fly over the sky.
SPANISH GUARD 5 is pierced by an arrow
side to side his
throat.
Arboleda walks along the
mezzanine.
He sees a bunch of cadavers, piled up by the Senecas
in the
middle of the meadow as a trench
against the enemy.
Beyond he sees the slow march of the English cannon.
Arboleda raises his sword and
aims at the cannon.
ARBOLEDA
Destroy the cannon first!
SAMPERARCO, a 60-year old politician approaches Arboleda.
He
still wears his nightly gown.
SAMPERARCO
I demand an immediate cease of
fire. We have signed a truce with
the Senecas.
ARBOLEDA
Doctor Samperarco. Another
sentence and I will imprisoned
you
for subordination.
An arrow trespasses Samperarco's eye.
EXT. SPANISH CAMP, BEFORE THE FENCE - DAY
The wooden wall is climbed up by some
warriors, amongst them
by Xemsuo,
with the only
help of their knife.
The English cannon has been placed on the
top of the
hill.
Mawa nods his head.
The English cannon aims a part of the
wooden wall free
of
Seneca warriors.
Vergow fires up the rear of the
cannon.
The wooden wall crumbles into pieces.
EXT. SPANISH CAMP, INSIDE THE FENCE -DAY
Arboleda and Semperarco
fell onto the floor of the mezzanine
by the impact of the cannonball.
Their bodies slide on the logs that fall like a castle of
cards.
EXT. SPANISH CAMP, BEFORE THE FENCE - DAY
Grajo jumps over the wooden
fall. His body has some
bloody
scratches.
He fights with SPANISH GUARDS 6, 7 and 8; their bayonets
against his spear and his knifes.
Xemsuo looks at the row of long
logs falling down,
one after
the
other. They seem to come towards him.
Arboleda raises from the ground
and waves his sword
against
the Senecas.
Both forces clash in disorder.
Frazuo, besides the falling
wall, aims Arboleda with his eye,
holding his bow, stretching his
arrow.
The series of falling row stops only five logs next to Xemsuo.
Mawa watches the encounter from the distance.
ARBOLEDA
To the ground!
The Spanish forces fall onto the ground.
The cannons of the interior garrison shoot their cannonballs
over the Spanish heads.
The field is confused by smoke, bloo