Movie Script Essay, Research Paper
i) Script
Scene starts out when the two soldiers bring Arthur to the interrogation room. Light greyish walls, two tables arranged like a “T” in the middle, two fluorescent lights on the other side of the table where the to two interrogators are sitting, big bright light on Arthur’s side of the table and one very uncomfortable rough seat for Arthur. Big picture of Lenin behind the interrogators, flag of the USSR in the left corner, and two big pot plants on each side of the walls around the room.
Cast
? Soldiers x2
? Arthur
? Cpt. Kouznetzov “CK”
? Col. Brutnikoff “CB”
? KGB Director of Arthur’s country “KGBD”
? Principal
Soldier 1: (comes in with Arthur, and salutes Col Brutnikoff handing him a report about Arthur and his whereabouts etc….) We found him trying to sneak into one of the consulates on Leninsky Cr. Luckily we found him just in time. He didn’t resist, but he is completely against our Supreme Soviet system.
Arthur sits down without any permission
Arthur: (sarcastically) nothing personal
CK: get up and face Col. Brutnikoff
Arthur stands up and faces C.B.
CB: I don’t care where you are from, all I want to know is, who are you?
Arthur: My name is Arthur Ardzruny, according to your laws. But my actual name is Arthur Birmingham according to my ORIGINAL birth certificate.
CB: Did you kill anyone?
Arthur: No. I came to see the consulate
CB: Could you explain to us, how come you don’t carry any documents? Where is your Komsomol card or your passport?
Arthur: I don’t have any of them. I never became a Pioneer or a Komsomol or have a passport for that matter.
CK: Tell us the name of the school you’re supposed to be in.
Arthur: Tellman Secondary School. I have all the phone numbers; I can give them to you to verify my story.
CK: No we’ll come to that later.
CB: How long are you going to pretend? This is the end of the line; you know that, the sooner you confess the better it is for all of us.
Arthur: What am I supposed to confess to? Thing things I haven’t done?!
CB: Give us all of your possessions
Arthur: I already gave them to your soldiers, why don’t you ask them
CB: Take Arthur to cell block G43
Soldiers give a notebook full of phone numbers to Col. Brutnikoff, and then take Arthur to his cell.
Walking down the corridors:
Arthur: (thinking to himself) these soldiers make enough noise to wake the dead.
2 hours later. Soldiers bring Arthur back to the interrogation room.
CB: We have checked all the phone numbers in you little book here… nobody seems to know you.
Arthur: How could you check my phone book, if all the names were written in another language?
CB: Don’t get smart with me.
Arthur: How can I get smart if you couldn’t check on me? And no one knows me?
CK: You are not only a murderer, but also a bad liar. A very bad liar.
Arthur: I haven’t lied about anything, and I’m not a murderer. I’m sure the KGB knows the difference between a criminal and an ordinary person
One of the soldiers kicks Arthur’s chair from under, making him fall on the floor.
CK: Get up
Arthur does as he’s told
CK: Look. We have a lot of ways at our disposal, in which case you will answer all the questions. So why don’t you save yourself the trouble, and we’ll start from the beginning.
Arthur: Ok, lets start from the beginning. I was born on the 13th September 1946, when I was 2 years old I was brought to this country. I was eight years old when I found out about my father who was a foreigner, I have no right to register my original surname, and I have a fabricated birth certificate that says I was born in the Soviet Union. And, I am not responsible for my mother’s action by bringing me here. All I want is to re-instate my rights and have a choice to return to my father’s country. Surely in the Soviet Union, where family and moral issues are highly respected, and all other children have the right to bear their father’s name, shouldn’t I have the same right also?
CK: You are not here about family discussion. Why don’t you tell us, how you committed all those crimes in one day.
Arthur: I have only one thing to say, which I already stated. If that makes me a criminal then let it be. I’m sure you’ll be able to produce the witnesses that have seen me making all those crimes. I have a question for you. Were the other 15 million people who were exiled for no apparent reason, were they also criminals?
Cpt. Kouznetzov whispers something to Brutnikoff, and then signals the soldiers to take Arthur to a “persuasion” room.
Arthur is brought back to the interrogation a day later with a bleeding arm (which was poorly bandaged), and black eye and badly bruised leg.
CB: (sarcastically) I know you didn’t have a very pleasurable experience with us, but if you had told us before what you were doing here you wouldn’t have been treated like that. This is what I’m going to do now, I’m going to ring the country you came from and speak to the head of Internal affairs whom I know quite well, and also later I’ll speak to your principal. I hope you have no objections.
Arthur stares and doesn’t answer.
A bit later
Arthur: Can I at least sit down now?
Arthur sits
Kouznetzov starts dialling the phone
CB: One last time, if there is anything you have to tell us, this is the time.
Again, Arthur doesn’t answer. A couple of minutes later, Brutnikoff has a conversation with the head of internal affairs of Arthur’s country. It’s around 1:30a.m.
CB: (speaking on the phone) We have a comrade Ardzruny with us, in a matter f his birth certificate and the country of origin. I would like you to tell us everything that could become helpful in our decision.
Brutnikoff puts the phone through a speaker so Arthur could hear.
KGBD: (speaking loudly, cynical voice) Arthur. I never thought you would wake me up at this time in the morning to talk about you. We have a problem in our hands, since this young man has a criticizing attitude towards what the Supreme Soviet Union stands for, he’s got some illusions of having a foreign birth certificate when he was born here and for some reason he created a foreign father which doesn’t exists in our records. So this is the situation, he refused to join the Pioneer or Komsomol ranks, and now he demands that we register his alleged original surname on his passport, which we don’t even know what it is. I know you heard all this Arthur, and you will come to you senses once and for all….
Arthur: I came to my senses when I was 8 years old!
KGBD: You see this is what I mean. I don’t think this matter is going to finish up here, so I’ll let you decide what to do.
Brutnikoff starts talking to the head of internal affairs personally. A few minutes later, they switch the speaker back on, and the KGBD speaks to Arthur
KGBD: Arthur, I want you to listen damn well whatever you choose to do…
Arthur: (interrupts) After all that’s been happening, you still can’t choose in this country.
KGBD: (in a very violent and irritated voice) ??????????????????€‡‰ ?????????????????€‡‰?????????„?€š????•????‡‰‹????œ˜Œƒ????????????€‰????†??????‡‰????„?€š????•????‡‰‹????œ˜Œƒ??????????????€‡!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, the speaker is distorted very badly since he is speaking so loudly. Nobody can understand what he is saying.
Arthur: Please calm down; you need your voice to look after the nation.
All of a sudden the speaker cuts off
CB: I see you have made friends with some important people. I’m going to call your principal now, and I hope you’ll be more kind to him.
Brutnikoff starts dialling. When there is no answer he rings the home number. Principal picks up the phone. It’s about 4:00a.m.
CB: Good morning, my name is Col. Brutnikoff from KGB in Moscow. Are you the principal of Tellman Secondary School?
Principal: (astonished) Yes, yes I am. What’s this all about?
CB: We have one of your students, Arthur Ardzruny with us who told us quite a story about the school activities.
Principal gives the same reaction as the KGBD, but finally calms down
Principal: That public hating, anti-social, anti-Leninism, anti-Soviet rebel! I’ve had enough of him, I have a school to run, and because of his social standings I’m not prepared to have a heart attack. How did he end up with you?
CB: We caught him trying to sneak into a consulate.
Principal: ARTHUR!!!!!! Eventually I’m going to see you, but when I do see you I’m going to do what I should of done a long time ago!
Arthur: Sir, are you going to offer me a nice warm bed? It’s very cold here
Principal: (starting to go mad) Mr. Brutnikoff!! Whatever you believe in STOP HIM!!! Stop this disaster.
CB: I’m warning you about the consequences of your words Arthur.
Arthur: (to Brutnikoff) I want them to call me by my real surname not Ardzruny, which comes from my grandfather’s side
Principal: You see, you see, this is what I said this is what I mean. You heard what he said.
CB: Just calm down, calm down. There is no need to go completely mad over such a thing.
Conversation concludes in private. When he finishes…
CB: You’ll be here for a while yet. And you’ll have lots of time to decide who you want to be. Ardzruny or some Birmingham. Take him out of my site he disgusts me…. Playing a foreigner.