The Pressure Cooker

KOSTAS KOLIMENOS - VANGELIS BEKAS

THE PRESSURE COOKER

Movie Script

1st AWARD 2015 Scriptwriters Guild of Greece

2015 AWARD AKAKIA Publications

Copyright © KOSTAS KOLIMENOS - VANGELIS BEKAS 2016

Published in England by AKAKIA Publications, 2016

KOSTAS KOLIMENOS - VANGELIS BEKAS

THE PRESSURE COOKER

Movie Script

ISBN: 978-1-910714-72-0

Copyright © KOSTAS KOLIMENOS - VANGELIS BEKAS 2016

CopyrightHouse.co.uk ID: 184965

Cover Image:

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1st AWARD 2015 Scriptwriters Guild of Greece

2015 AWARD AKAKIA Publications

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2016, London, UK

[OPENING TITLES]

FADE IN:

SCENE 1. EXT / SNOW-CLAD FOREST / DAYTIME

There is a snow-covered forest on the slope of a mountain. A flute can be heard. Snow is dropping down from the loaded tree branches and a bird is flying from twig to twig. A wooden hovel covered in snow can be made out in the distance between the trees and the tin chimney on its roof is puffing up smoke.

SCENE 2. INT / HOVEL / DAYTIME

Inside the cabin there is a man, KING (48), sitting in front of a lit makeshift brazier and is playing a kind of wind instrument that looks like a flute. His eyes move right and left, following the tempo. His hair and beard are long and dishevelled and he is wearing worn-out army boots. His fingers playing the flute are harsh with nails blackened from the dirt. He is wearing a patched, dirty coat, baggy pullover and wide, saggy trousers. His hovel is full of odds and ends. Empty cans, pieces of paperboard, a rusty spoon, pallets, an old pot, some holed blankets thrown around.

SCENE 3. EXT / SNOW-CLAD FOREST / DAYTIME

The King’s flute can be heard in the white-clad forest. A bird is singing in response to the flute and rushes to hide in its nest.

SCENE 4. EXT / VILLAGE SNOW-CLAD FOREST / DAYTIME

At the edge of the snowed-in forest, there is an abandoned village with stone houses and rooftops covered with slabs. The snow-covered shrubbery and brambles have drowned the footpaths and the house yards.

A SHEPHARD (65) is coming up the mountain towards the forest. He is wearing a woollen hat and is covered in a thick black coat to keep the chilling cold out. He walks off the path and disappears in the trees, leaving behind him traces of blood on the snow.

SHEPHERD

(Hollering) Hey King! Are you alive over there?

SCENE 5. INT / HOVEL / DAYTIME

The KING stops playing the flute, gets jittery at the sound of the voice.

SCENE 6. EXT / SNOW-CLAD FOREST / DAYTIME

The SHEPHERD stands still trying to hear a response from KING. Nothing can be heard. Just a crying magpie. In his hand, he’s holding the pluck of a lamb. The blood is still dripping next to his plastic galoshes, red-spotting the snow.

SCENE 7. EXT / HOVEL - FOREST / DAYTIME

The rickety wooden door of the hovel screeches slowly open, amidst the snow-heavy trees barely enough for KING’S eye to peek through. The door opens a bit more and his face shows. His eyes play wildly like a wild beast’s. He sees the SHEPHERD behind the snow-clad shrubbery and scratches his head. He dares a couple of strides, hides behind a tree and peeks at the SHEPHERD nervously puckering his nose and mouth.

SCENE 8. EXT / SNOW-CLAD FOREST / DAYTIME

SHEPHERD

(Yelling): Where are you, King, you? Brought ‘ya a pluck to cook. Here, I’ll just leave right here for’ ya...

The SHEPHERD leaves the pluck on the snow and approaches the slaughtered lamb lying there. He catches it and starts dragging it on the snow, leaving a trail of blood behind.

SCENE 9. EXT / HOVEL - FOREST / DAYTIME

King reveals himself behind the tree he has hiding, and sniffs the pluck in the air like a forest animal. He runs to it, stands over it and looks at the SHEPHERD who is disappearing down the footpath amongst the stone trees.

SCENE 10. INT / HOVEL/ DAYTIME

KING enters the hovel holding the pluck, and hangs it on a cane protruding from the roof, then sits next to the lit brazier. He picks us he flute again and prepares to play again, but notices that the pluck is dripping blood on a tin plate lying on the floor of the hovel. He gets up, comes closer and observes in the light of the brazier that the blood is running on the tin plate, forming strange signs. His eyes sparkle and he is impressed.

He gets a rusty jackknife out of his pocket and stabs the hanging pluck with it. Then again. And again. The pluck is now dripping more blood on the tin plate and his eyes sparkle even more, looking at the signs made by the blood. He picks up his flute and starts playing, coming closer to the blood that is running on the tin plate and then sits down near the brazier, playing the same tune. The blood (as if made by the tempo of the tune) runs over a little distance on the tin plate and drips on a black and white photo thrown nearby. It is the photo of a young man with a moustache in a suit. It must have been taken around the end of the 1960s.

FADE OUT

SCENE 11. EXT / ATHENS – OUTSIDE NICOS’ HOUSE / DAYLIGHT

FADE IN

The tune from KING’S flute can still be heard. The ‘forest’ of the buildings of the conglomeration of Athens is seen from above. The sun is shining. Cars rolling on the streets and their beeps compete against the flute tune. On the sidewalk, people wear short-sleeved shirts and a young women wearing shorts is licking her ice-cream. On the background there is an old apartment building. The shutters in the second-floor apartment are open.

SCENE 12. INT / NICOS’ APARTMENT / DAYLIGHT

The flute fades out with a prolonged trill when NICOS (68) appears. He is wearing an old-fashioned jacket, stands upright with little hair and a grey beard. He takes out old-fashioned clothes and white undergarments from the drawer and places them carefully into a disheveled valise on the bed. Together, he packs ancient Greek dictionaries, monographs about Solomos and ancient tragedies.

He attempts to put Dionysios Solomos’¹ ‘Free under siege’ in his old, similarly weathered, leather bag but he hesitates. He sits on the bed, holding the book reverently in his hands. He is about to open it and start reading, but the door intercom rings and interrupts him. He puts hurriedly in the book in the leather bag, grabs the luggage and the bag and exits the bedroom.

In the sitting room of his frugal apartment, there is a rather old bookcase filled with old dusty theater and literature books. A little further down, there are old armchairs and posters (in English) from performances that he had taken part in in the old days. One of the posters shows himself as Oedipus. The door intercom buzzes again. NICOS presses the button to answer it.

NICOS

Coming down...

Carrying his luggage and leather bag, he opens the apartment door.

SCENE 13. EXT / GROUND-LEVEL PARKING IN NICOS’ APARTMENT BUILDING / DAYLIGHT

ATHENA (28), is a brunette wearing a bohemian summer dress and sandals. Crossing her hands on her chest, she is sitting on the hood of a 4x4 and upon