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Hugo Santander |
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THE END OF AMERICA
A screenplay by Hugo Santander |
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TITLE CARD THE
EXT.
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
EXT.
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
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:
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
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 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
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 (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:
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 |