Hedwig
Irene Gorski
from Calling to Yeti—a full-length screenplay for a bio-pic about Wislawa Szymborska, 1996 Nobel laureate (Note: Wislawa dialogue is excerpted from laureate’s actual acceptance speech.)
OFFICIAL
Let us now welcome the honored
Nobel Laureate from Poland, Pani Wislawa Szymborska, who has long been
considered the best woman poet by her countrymen.
Wislawa gets up and walks to
the podium.
WISLAWA’S POV
She takes the official’s extended
hairy hand, then takes her place behind the microphones at the podium. She
imagines everyone in the audience as Yetis in formal wear.
Audience applauds.
BACK TO SCENE
WISLAWA
(smiles)
They say that the first sentence
in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one’s behind me.
Audience laughs.
WISLAWA’S CIGARETTE
burns a hole in the fine linen
tablecloth.
WISLAWA
Film biographies of great
scientists and artists are produced in droves. The directors seek to reproduce convincingly
the creative process that led to important scientific discoveries or to the
emergence of a masterpiece. And one can depict certain kinds of scientific
labor with some success. Laboratories, sundry instruments, elaborate machinery
brought to life: such scenes may hold the audience’s interest for a while. But
poets are the worst. Their work is hopelessly unphotogenic.
BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
in the audience lifts up her
pocket camera to take Wislawa’s photo.
WISLAWA
Someone sits at a table or
lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling.
CHERUBIC CHILD
with a Polish flag pin on his
lapel dozes off.
WISLAWA (CONT’D O.S.)
while this person writes down
seven lines, only to cross out one of them fifteen minutes later.
Audience laughs.
Who could stand to watch this
kind of thing?
Audience laughs.
WATCH
The hands on an African man’s
gold wristwatch indicate that forty-five minutes have passed.
CHERUBIC CHILD
shifts his weight while sleeping
deeply.
TEENAGE BOY
wearing colorful Egyptian
native dress sneaks a fork full of pastry from his plate.
WISLAWA
I don’t know.
Audience applauds. A barrage
of camera flashes go off blinding Wislawa, who bends her head, tries to smile,
but is visibly disturbed by the ruckus.
CHINESE WOMAN
with white hair bends over to
speak to another while applauding.
WOMAN IN HER 50s
A crystal wine glass breaks
when it is knocked to the floor after a swish of the woman’s satin wrap catches
it while she rises from her seat with the rest of the audience members for a
standing ovation.
CHERUBIC CHILD
wakes up amidst the applause
and sleepily rubs his eyes. He looks around at the standing figures surrounding
him and begins to wail.
POLISH FLAG PIN
on the cherubic child’s lapel
catches tears as they slide down his cheek.
MATCH CUT:
GERMAN FLAG PIN
along with other pins
including the two lightening bolts of the SS and a Swastika, is pinned to the
black uniform of a NAZI OFFICER.
The pins gleam with orange
reflections.
WIDER VIEW
The reflections are from a
huge bonfire of burning corpses.
EXT. AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION
CAMP - NIGHT
The setting could be mistaken
for hell.
FAT WORKER
wearing the dirty striped camp
uniform stands next to the SS officer.
A CORPSE of a beautiful, naked
woman falls off an unburned part of the pile and roles toward the feet of the
two. Her peaceful face surrounded by blonde hair seems out of place in the
dirt. The SS officer jiggles her ample breasts with his boot.
OFFICER
(coldly)
Pity. Put it back, Kapo.
FAT WORKER
quickly drags the body by the
blonde hair toward a group of EMACIATED WORKERS in ragged striped uniforms,
some with yellow stars to indicate which are Jewish.
FAT WORKER
(commanding)
You ghosts take her and toss
her into the flames.
EMACIATED WORKERS
The skeletal workers called
“ghosts” grab an extremity and swing the corpse back and forth to build
momentum. Her hair catches fire in one pass and sails through the air looking
like a flaming torch.
One of the “ghosts”
accidentally catches fire and the others mindlessly stare at their screaming
comrade. The SS officer, annoyed by the screams, shoots the burning “ghost.”
OFFICER
Tell me, Fatso, how you manage
to gain weight while the others die of starvation.
FAT WORKER
Parcels from my mother in
Cracow, sir.
OFFICER
Sergeant Schultz has been
selling those things on the black market for years. I’m surprised you are able
to get yours.
Laughs and smacks his lips.
Yummy, smells like roast pig,
sometimes, doesn’t it, you fat swine.
FAT WORKER
Yes, sir.
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