The story of a miracle, Treatment by Michael Kokkinaris

George Sigalas, an intelligent art conservator, around 35, specializing in Medieval Era, works for a large London Art Conservation Society.

His studies and experience helped him become an insurance consultant for the many valuable works of art auctioned in London.

In this capacity, he will find the opposite 30-year-old Kate Hathaway, appraiser, and broker of a large Auction House, because of the original estimates of the value of the works of art was to insured.

However, through their explosive contrasts, a sexual attraction arose between them, which sealed a year later with their marriage.

From their marriage, they had a boy, Ean Sigalas, who only concerned him, as he grew older and understood, was his father’s frequent absence for maintenance of works of art in manycountries abroad.

So when George accepted in his London office the visit of Malcolm Corden, a well-known shipping agent in the City, he could not imagine everything that would follow and lift his assurances until then.

Corden’s wife, the 60-year-old Marie d’Anjou, a French woman from an aristocratic family wanted to use a farmhouse in Cluny, which she inherited but faced the refusal of the authorities to grant the relevant building permit because of building materials from the Abbaye de Cluny, which looted and sold as a quarry of building materials after the French Revolution, had incorporated into the farmhouse.

Marie d’Anjou even claimed that when she was 9 years old, in her farmhouse, she unexpectedly walked, while suffering from poliomyelitis, when their gardener took her to the cellar and prayed in front of a lintel which had a strange zone-shaped engraving.

Malcolm Corden, therefore, asked George to go to Cluny, to use any information that existed and to examine the building materials incorporated in the farmhouse, lest one of the many relics lost during the destruction of the Monastery in the French Revolution hidden, to give permission to rebuild the farmhouse.

George will accept the challenge, face suspicion of the French authorities, feel the peculiarity of the place, until he receives a phone call from Kate, that Ean is not well and should be hospitalized.

George and Kate will be hard-tested by little Ean’s disease, who diagnosed with adrenal cancer and went through the tough test of chemotherapy.

George, however, must return to France to complete his research in Cluny and face the costs of his son’s hospitalization.

Examination of Abbaye de Cluny’s building materials, which embedded in the farmhouse, is laborious for George, often interrupted by images of little Ean suffering from chemotherapy. At the end of the fourth day of the autopsy, George falls into a deep sleep in the farmhouse’s cellar. The images emerging from his unconscious are terrifying. Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople, looted by Crusaders.

One of them with his heavy sword breaks a glass display case and takes a gold-plated minor case.

Then making space, among looters, with his hand the minor case comes out of the Temple and gets lost in the smoke that drowns Constantinople.

The same Crusader kneels before the Abbaye de Cluny Abbot gives him the gold-plated holster and the Abbot reads him a wish.

The Abbot opens the case.

Inside the case, there is a minor piece of fabric, while it illustrates the case inside with the icon of the Virgin Mary offering her Holly Belt as she ascends to Heaven.

The next morning, George feels he’s close to what he’s looking for.

Lintel in the cellar, with the like belt carving must hide what it’s looking for.

Workers subdue the door and remove the lintel.

George’s mental intensity is great when he examines the lintel.

The lintel looks solid... But it’s not.

The chisel that George holds sinks into the plaster of his small surface and George grabs into his hands the small gold-plated case.

The tears from George’s eyes begin to run as a tiny piece of red-colored fabric revealed, while the images of little Ean's suffering dazzles his vision.

And while a tear from George’s eyes falls on the sheath, a sense of coolness fills the space.

The next day George hands the case to Marie d’Anjou, who in vain tries to convince him that the miracle of her treatment was this little piece of red cloth, which came as a loot from the East and must have belonged to the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary!

George returns to London and rushes to see his son at the hospital, where he is being treated.

On the floor, there are voices of children playing.

George opens the door further and distinguishes between them Ean, who as soon as he sees him with incredible momentum falls into his arms.

George, with Ean in his arms, bursts into a mute, while Kate, who enters the chamber, hugs father and son, whispering to George:

- Believe it, George, we got our lives back!

Below are images of Ean playing in London parks, clutching images of little Marie d’Anjou pulling out the ironsholding her legs and with slight steps falling into her mother’s arms.

Scripts beyond the limits of human imagination,by Michael Kokkinaris

                          AT PROXIMA CENTAURI'S COLONIA

Log Line: The lost Heaven of NASA's colony at Proximus Sentauri Planet.

Summary: WASHINGTON DC 2235.

In conditions of extreme violence and crime , the city's Chief Prosecutor is called confidentially from the US Senate to withdraw his objections against genetic modification program of " born " criminals who dominate the cities .

Shortly before witnessing at the court of law, he unexpectedly receives a radiowave ­ call from NASA's colony at Hopeful Planet , which negates the false image of Paradise , which was nourished by NASA , after creating a human colony with a modified human genome . 

“IInterstellar”meets “The Island”. A script for a feature film based on the future plans of NASA to colonize new planets.

SHANGHAI BELOVED

a script for a feature film

by

Michael Kokkinaris

                                                   

LOGLINE: A love with no future  in a shaken Shanghai of the 19th century

TREATMENT:

The winter of 1860; the Taipei uprising in South China is underway. United States diplomats seek concessions in Shanghai's port from the Qing Imperial Dynasty under the rule of  Lord Zhang Ziyi. Meanwhile, a young naval officer, Arthur Maguire, defends his life and the lives of his men during the invasion of the palace on the outskirts of Shanghai.

The invasion seems fatal to all in the palace until a female shadow, followed by well-armed men, provides the solution to the defense and salvation of the palace.

At the first light of day, Lieutenant Arthur Maguire will be called to meet Lord Zhang Ziyi's daughter, Shang-Hai. He will love her for her beauty and her wisdom!

This struggle challenges the success of 19th century American diplomacy. An era filled with bloody preconceptions begins.

Even if these preconceptions are eventually overcome, the era will mark the souls of many people until death definitively separates them.

Dying in Alexandria,Novel by Michael Kokkinaris

                          Michael Kokkinaris

                          Dying in Alexandria

                            Novel

 

                                                            

 

In the foundations of a newly-erected building in Alexandria, Egypt, a crypt was accidentally found containing the remains of a young woman who had lived in the late Roman Period (around 250 AD.), the body of whom had been wrapped in white linen fabric which had preserved her memoirs written in large Greek characters.

The archaeologist who received the findings, Dr. Karim Ahmandi of the Archaeological Museum of Cairo, was so taken by the paper mask of such unique artistry which had been placed on her face, as well as the memoirs of Leukothea, the woman from Alexandria who still had the power to captivate after so many thousands of years, that he decided to seek the help of experts to determine the cause of her death and to digitally reproduce her hologram.

The forensic doctor, Sarah MacLeine of the Forensic Services in London, and the professor of Computer Science, Miltos Anastasiades, will be the first characters in our story whose lives will be changed by the ‘presence’ of Leukothea, that young woman who had felt the need to record on her shroud her thoughts on the meaning of life and death, of love and solitude, aiming chiefly to leave the mark of her thoughts to her beloved Lamachos, a painter who had attempted through his art to represent the soul of the people that he depicted in his portraits (the characteristic ‘logic’ of the painters who preserved the portraits of Fayum).

And the interesting part is that Leukothea’s memoirs was not the diary of a forbidden love (Lamachos was the husband of her mother’s sister), but testimony to the freedom of thought of a person who had the strength, in spite of appearances, to touch on the real scale of human relationships which affirm the loneliness of our individuality.

Nevertheless, the archaeologist will change his mind in the course of things and will request that the investigation, both of Macleine and of Anastasiades, be cancelled on the grounds that the mosaic that had covered the crypt of Leukothea revealed the existence of a second tomb while it contained an encrypted curse of death on anyone who disturbed the peace of the dead!

The second tomb must have belonged to the painter, who had perhaps been offered condolences by the contractor of the site who died suddenly a few days later of a massive haemorrhage.

The forensic doctor, wanting to convince herself that the threats of Ahmandi concerning whoever disturbed the peace of the dead were just a trick on his part to achieve fame, as well as because deep down inside, she wanted to assure herself that the life of Miltos, with whom she feels that she is in love, is not in danger, goes to Cairo to gather information on the real cause of the contrator’s death.  She is, however, overwhelmed by uncertainty when the driver of  the excavating equipment also died while working on the foundations of the site in Alexandria and during whose autopsy it proved impossible to determine the cause of the massive haemorrhage.

But Miltos, too, who in turn tries not to reveal the fact that he is in love with Sarah while his marriage is going through difficulties, in his anguish that Ahmandi might have been right, is ready to go to Cairo to find out exactly what is happening.

The forensic doctor eventually comes up with a theory for what is happening exactly, which is confirmed by the sudden death from massive haemorrhage in London of an eccentric collector, Andrew Sheffer, in whose computer files was found the telephone number of Karim Ahmandi… of the Archaeological Museum of Cairo…

Ahmandi, of-course, never dealt illegally in antiquities.  He had simply offered to purchase the ‘mummy’ of Lamachos, Leukothea’s beloved painter, which had been removed to England illegally, in order to return it to the Museum to ‘rest in peace’ beside the woman he had loved!

But before the transaction could be completed, Sheffer died of massive haemorrhage.. and Ahmandi had…  convincing evidence of the power of the curse on those who disturbed the peace of Lamachos and Leukothea.

Nevertheless, with the help of Scotland Yard, MacLeine will prove that the cause of death of so many people was not in fact due to Lamachos’ curse, but some poison with which the mummy had been saturated…

Ahmandi refuses to accept this version of events and when Sarah discovers the real reason for his refusal, the archaeologist will ‘wish’ upon her the same fate as all those who have disturbed the peace of the dead.

                                                                      *   *   *

 A year later, whereas Miltos Anastasiades has come to terms with the fact that he must live without MacLeine, he receives a call from her which is the ‘solution’ to the story.

Sarah has leukemia and wants to ‘leave’ with dignity having next to her the man who had given meaning to her life, Miltos, and who will be witness to the most extreme scenario that only real life can write.

                                      

*   *   *

 

 

 

 

 

Extract from ‘The Memories of Leukothea’

                                             

 After the burial of Eriphylle, my mother felt that she could not go on living anymore.

The ‘absence’ of my sister must have been unbearable for her.

We live in a world determined by the god Horus[1] only once, and God forbid if that one and only time is immersed in misery!

  

                                   

Thus Hypatia decided to die.

And the one who would have to impress her image on the shroud in which her body would be wrapped was, once again, Lamachos.

Under normal circumstances I should hate that person.

He was the herald to the loss of my loved-ones.

How silly I am!

‘Loss of my loved-ones…’

Whereas we all know that sooner or later Osiris[2] will welcome us into his realm, we insist on ‘exorcising’ him as if he will ever cease to exist.

Let it be Lamachos then, the man who attracted my attention from the moment I laid eyes on him.

This time, though, I am determined to become part of his life, his mind, even if he pretends to be indifferent!

Hypatia’s melancholy will not deter me from making him notice me, or to be more precise, from forcing him to show his interest in me.

When at last my mother had set aside the jewellery that she would ‘wear’ on her image, Lamachos again chose the brightest time of day in which to draw an out-line of her.

I remained watching from the shadows, what I would never allow to happen to me.

                    

I never again wanted to hear Lamachos’ words, which the second time had been like a blow to the stomach.

“You may look at me, Hypatia, but you do not see me…

I want you to see the images in your mind, the world where you will go and live…[3]”

Silently I approached the spot where he was standing and brought my lips so close to the nape of his neck that he must have been able to feel my breath.

He was incredibly attractive at such close quarters and what I had done had been incredibly bold, both on my part but also for Hypatia who, nevertheless, had immersed herself in the world where she anticipated meeting Eriphylle.

Then I whispered to him:

“Do you want to make me believe that you are going to ‘paint’ Hypatia’s soul?”

“Her soul is her eyes…  with them I will render her spirit…  as long as she is ready…”

I was about to leave, but then I had second thoughts.

It was my only chance to finally be assured that I meant something in Lamachos’ life.

I leant over once more and whispered:

“You mean, if I let you paint my eyes, you’ll be able to ‘read’ my soul?”

 

                                

 

Hypatia appears tired and wants to stop for today

“Like I said the other time:  I can ‘read’ your eyes but have difficulty in rendering them because I’m afraid I won’t do them justice, and likewise, your soul, which probably does not intend to remain imprisoned in an ephemeral body…”

So the body is ephemeral and the soul eternal!

The same words that I had once heard from the lips of Sergius, my father, who had never ceased reiterating his admiration for Plotinus[4].

Anyway, I’m grateful to Plotinus.

If it hadn’t been for him, and for Sergius’ certitude that he was his true follower, I would have never learned to read and write!

In this way he taught me to write, in order to copy his writings.

Six nines, six years of discussing issues that my father surely did not understand, but had the certitude of knowing them precisely as Plotinus had formulated them!

Until the poor man had died suddenly before having the time to tell me his final wishes as to the fate of all that papyrus which Hypatia had unfortunately handed over to the embalmers to stuff her husband’s body with.

Ofcourse I would not have dared raise any objection, since she had never found out that I had learned to read and write!

And a little while before Lamachos left that day, I took the first step in prompting him to express his feelings.

Appearing to be willing to help him with his easels and his pigments, I pretended to tidy up, when I whispered to him as our eyes met:

“Do you want the truth…  Uncle Lamachos?  I don’t think you can read my soul, that’s why you have difficulty in drawing my eyes.”

His answer verified my theory that the compulsion of the soul is insurmountable:

“I beg you, Leukothea, is it not enough that you have provoked me from the moment that I met you?”

“It is not enough for me, Lamachos, and that is the most difficult thing of all…”

“As for your soul…  I will read it one day in your eyes…”

At that moment I wanted to run into his arms, become one with him, and fortunately I didn’t do it, because everything would have been more difficult for me and for him…

With Lamachos, though, it wasn’t the idea of physical union that possessed me.

At least it wasn’t the main cause of my confusion when I saw him.

And when I found out that Arsinoe, the courtesan, had asked him to paint him in the nude because that was how she wanted Osiris to see her on the long journey of escape from the world of the living, not for a moment was I jealous.

Lust is an affliction.

Suffering for the unfulfilled desire to ‘couple’ with the other to overcome what you’ve always suspected but do not want to admit.

That you are, and will always remain alone, however many times you unite momentarily with the body of the other.

The moment of parting is the confirmation of your absolute solitude.

That’s why it wasn’t what I wanted from Lamachos.

Don’t imagine, of-course, that I was indifferent to love, when I was alive.

Quite the contrary. In fact, Eriphylle and I  had learned the mysteries of love from two young female slaves, whom my father had bought to help us around the house.

Pretexts…

Sergius had learned the pleasures of the ports and had refused to make do with only Hepatia, who had lately began to think mainly about life after death…

And so he had found these young beings, bought them, and since they were experienced in the art of love, showered them with gifts so as to keep their mouths shut.

Do you want my opinion?

That’s how he had understood life, and that’s how he had lived!

Ofcourse, Eriphylle and I would giggle about his antics and that’s as far as it went.

Nevertheless, what I had wanted from Lamachos was not to become his mistress.

I wanted to become part of the life of a man who through his art sought the incorruptible, that which is left untouched by the relentless ravages of time.

                    

And if it was possible, through the love of the eternal and the imperishable, I would experience its expression with my human senses, which attempt to describe what has never been described.

*   *   *

---

[1] Horus – the Sun-God.

[2] Osiris – is above all the god of Death, but also the god of after-death immortality.

[3] The Fayum Portraits are works that imitate certain forms in an attempt to record first of all resemblance and also to allude to the spiritual world of the person depicted.  G. Kordie, The Portraits of Fayum and the Byzantine Icon, Armos, Athens 2001, page 23 onwards.

[4] Plotinus – Instigator of Neoplatonism, the most important philosophical movement of the late Roman Period, born in Egypt in the 3^rd century A.D.

Michael Kokkinaris,Biographical note

Memory trace,Script by Michael Kokkinaris

The Handed,Script by Michael Kokkinaris

All is Fate Script by Michael Kokkinaris Full Treatment

All is Fate

Script by Michael Kokkinaris

Full Treatment

During the First World War, the Gallipoli peninsula was the battlefield where not only Turkish and English soldiers fell, but also many colonial military corps, mainly from New Zealand and India…

In the story narrated in the scenario, the confrontation on the battlefield on this narrow strip of land, where New Zealand troops landed in front of the KAMBA TEPE hills of the Gallipoli peninsula, between two men, the Turk Imit Iffetli and the New Zealand Major Michael Mason will be a matter of fate.

Coming from the mountain village of Albayrak in the region of Van in Turkey, Imit Iffetli, a twenty-year-old, accomplished horseman and marksman of forthright character, with the certainty that the soul of man is his honor, will come to know the ferocity of war when still as a new recruit he is forced to watch the hanging of a deserter.

In the spring of 1915, Imit Iffetli is transferred to the 19^th Division led by Colonel Kemal Ataturk to Gallipoli, where a strong attack is expected by the Allied Forces of the Entente, with the intent of occupying Constantinople by land after the failure of the Allied fleet to pass the straits of the Bosphorus.

Major Michael Mason is one of the New Zealand officers who will participate in the landing of the Allied troops in Gallipoli in order to implement Winston Churchill’s disastrous scheme for this operation which was to cost the lives of thousands of young men.

3.EXT.TURKEY.GALLIPOLI PENINSULA.KAMΒA TEPE.SUNRISE.

As dawn begins to break, the grey shadows of battleships are outlined on the horizon approaching the coast.

Camera on  a battleship.

On deck, soldiers in full kit are in rank formation ready to go to shore.

The captain and the officers on the bridge are observing the coast through binoculars.

CAPTAIN

       (scanning the shore with binoculars)

As soon as the first bullet is fired, I'll find you and crush you...

On the ship, whistles are heard and using rope ladders, the soldiers get into dinghies which are lowered on a cableway into the sea.

On the shore, in the Turkish outposts hidden in the rocks, tension prevails as the battleships approach.

The artillerymen on board check and double check the firing range of the cannons while the first dinghies full of soldiers begin to reach the coast.

Close up on the face of an officer on one of the dinghies, his eyes fixed impassively on the coast. The officer is about thirty five, with rugged facial features. On his epaulettes can be distinguished the rank of major.

And as the dinghy is approaching the shore, the camera focuses on his left hand in which he is holding a pendant. With his thumb, the officer discreetly opens the locket and reveals (close up) the face of a beautiful woman.

Flash back.

The major is tenderly holding in both hands the face of the woman in the photograph and is beseeching her.

MICHAEL

Dorothy, look at me one last time... tell me truthfully.

Do you want me to completely disappear from your life?

DOROTHY

Does it really matter what I want?

MICHAEL

That's not an answer!

DOROTHY

What answer can I give?

That I'm in love with you?

What's the point?

The officer closes the locket, puts on his kepi, leans on the gunwale of the dinghy and through his binoculars attempts to locate the positions of the gunmen on the coast.

The first dinghy that reaches the shore is fired upon by gunmen and many soldiers, either killed or wounded, fall into the sea.

While the soldiers are disembarking onto the shore, shots from the ships' cannons blow up many Turkish outposts.

From the bridge of one of the battleships, the captain, while continuing to monitor the situation on the coast through binoculars, orders

CAPTAIN

Cease fire!

God help them!

At the same time, the dinghy with the major's men lands on shore and the major, standing upright, without showing the slightest fear of all the bullets whizzing by him, gives orders to reorganise on the ground and the machineguns that are set up on the shore force the Turks to withdraw into the surrounding highlands.

On a personal level, Mason is weighed down by his unfulfilled relationship with Dorothy Donahue, the wife of the retired and crippled Colonel Andrew Donahue, and with whom he has decided to separate solely out of respect for her invalid husband.

In April of 1915, however, when Mason steps onto Turkish soil, what predominates in his mind is his sense of duty in a confrontation of war, which, as it had been planned, would inevitably lead to the slaughter of his men.

In spite of their casualties, the Turkish forces attacked the New Zealand lines and gradually decimated them since there was no alternative plan in place to enable them to escape the slaughter of Gallipoli.

…this time, the Turkish cavalry reaches right up to the New Zealand trenches and engage in hand-to-hand fighting with them.  When the order to abandon the trenches is heard, the flag-bearer of the New Zealand battalion raises the flag and enters the battlefield.

It is now the turn of the Turks to be decimated.

Major Michael Mason oversees the evacuation of the wounded and the recovery of the dead soldiers and through binoculars observes the movements of the Turkish forces on the hills.

The sergeant approaches him saying:

SERGEANT

There are twelve dead and forty wounded, Major.

MASON

There will be more dead, sergeant… and it’s not up to me to stop the slaughter…

Flash back to the map room of the British Naval Department where one can see the form of Winston Churchill casting a shadow over the map of the Gallipoli peninsula.

VOICE OVER

Mr. Churchill, you are responsible for the massacre of thousands of men with the irresponsible plan that you have produced…

SERGEANT

Your orders, Major?

MASON

To hold our positions at all costs, according to Staff command.

Until Major Michael Mason’s fateful day arrives…

From the hill, Mustafa Kemal watches impassively while the cavalry is annihilated.  Kemal issues the order for the third wave of the attack.  As the horsemen are approaching, through his binoculars he notices one of them from the second wave who is making for the New Zealand flag.  The horseman returns his sword to its sheath and with a pistol shoots the flag-bearer.  The New Zealand flag-bearer falls and the flag is taken up by Major Mason.  The horseman now moves towards him with his sword.  As the major is shooting his pistol, he is hit in the arms and body by some of the thousands of bullets falling all around him yet he continues to hold up the flag.  The camera now shows the face of the horseman.  It is Imit Iffetli, who is reaching the New Zealand major.

In slow motion, Imit raises his sword, readying himself to sink it into the major’s body.  The major, with broken arms, is trying to raise the flag.

Kemal observes the two men through his binoculars.  

While the sword of the Turk is raised, the major remains motionless, searching to meet the Turk’s gaze in order to show him that he is not afraid of death.

And then, Imit grabs the flag in his left hand without finishing off the major, who is by now too weak to uphold his honor.

Imit is now galloping alongside the New Zealand trenches holding their flag upside down while the bullets are whistling past him.  The third charge of the Turks is to prove fatal for the New Zealanders.  In slow motion, the Turkish cavalry first, followed by ground troops, knock down the New Zealanders, who are overcome one by one.  Heavily wounded, Mason is transported to a hospital ship off the coast of Gallipoli and he will ultimately survive to recover in Egypt where he is evacuated for further medical care.  As for Iffetli, his inexplicable gesture of sparing the life of the New Zealand major will come to the attention of the divisional commander Kemal Ataturk, who will in the end acknowledge his conviction that the soul of man is his honor.

Afterwards, Imit Iffetli, with the rank of sergeant, will take part in the battle of Suvla, where once again, the incomprehensible off-handedness of the English Staff officers will lead to the renewed slaughter of the Allied Forces.

At Suvla he will save the life of the German Chief of Staff, Major Herbert Neumann, who eventually choses to follow him to the Eastern Front at the border between Turkey and Russia, where there are violent transfers of Armenian populations.

Iffetli’s stopover in Constantinople will prove to be a determining factor in his life.

It is there that he will come to realize that the German major is in fact a violent, degenerate and ruthless war criminal in the service of Talaat Pasha of the Sultan’s Ministry of the Interior, responsible for the brutalities against the Armenian people.

So, when Neumann offers him as a gift a night at a well-known house of ill-repute in Constantinople, he will hear straight from the mouth of a small fourteen-year-old prostitute more than his pride can bear.

13.INT.IN KERHANE (BROTHEL).EVENING.

 It's dark. Nouman and Ifetli arrive in front off a large building,in a kerhane(brothel). Kerhane is a single story building, near Buyuk Tarci, which occupies an entire block.

 When placed in kerchane Noumea and Chavez Ifetli,greets  them a middle-aged kachpe (prostitute),half naked and repulsive painted. From her behavior in Nouman Imit understands that she knows him. Shortly after appearing two topless prostitutes who lost in the arms of happy Neuman.

 Before the curtain pass,which separates the brothel as a theater,the German says to middle-aged kachpe.

NOYMAN

Aishe ... Cavuz and your eyes ... 

Kachpe,catches IMIT from his hand,caressing his cheek and says slyly. KAHPE Stay calm... and I understand what you want! Back from the curtain is a large hallway with many rooms.At the edge of the corridor, the room where the latch is from outside,stops kahpe,unbar and tells Imit. KAHPE (CONT'D)  As the dawn lovebirds is yours ...  You, what do you define! And if happens something ... Do not worry.                 The German effendi repays us and with more! But interlocks when you enter and when ... you go out ...  Imit opens the door and goes in a small room.

The room barely lit by a large candle that burns up in a closet.

In a corner of the room is a bed and in the other corner sits on her knees a naked girl,trying to hide her nakedness with the attitude of her body. Imit who are not yet accustomed to the dim light,turns to remove his greatcoat when hears a muffled cry like sob. Puzzled latched the door and moved to the girl that rises and begins to tell pleadingly. GIRL          (crying) Please Effendi, do not hurt me please ...   Imit thinking that it's the uniform,unstuck almost over him and throws it away out of bed.  Now IMIT wearing only undergarment,makes a step forward. The naked girl comes up to him and  Imit spreads his hands to the touch her, while from her eyes run tears. But Imit's hands remains meteors, as in the dim light of the candle on girl's body strongly erased marks from  a whip.

Imit,like not wanting to see,turns his back and then the girl comes forward and falls on his knees.

Through the sobs she murmurs.  GIRL (CONT'D) Take me ... please! Make your fun! If it happens and opens the door,I'm lost  Imitlooks around with a style full of pity for the girl. In Flach back see Imit playing sex with a chubby shepherdess, who has cornered  him with her breasts in a tree and she don't leave him. Imit says laughing. IMIT I'll call ... SHEPHERDESS  Soon ... IMIT

Seftichie ,if understand something

the shepherd(tsompan-basi),he willspit you! SEFTICHIE Imit, darling,tsompan-basi is isunable... And as she says the last word, throwing him in the grass, strips him and drops over him, while hanging big breasts ...

Now Imit getting up the girl, hugs,like he do'nt want to hurt touching her wounds ,kissing her on shoulder and telling.  IMIT From where are you? GIRL From nowhere, Efendi! IMIT                  (patiently)  And where is this nowhere? GIRL  (with sob)   It was a small town near Erzurum. IMIT               How can I call you? GIRL  Call me ntitsi-kiopek (bitch), Efendi!  Imit catch her from the shoulders and forces her to look him in his eyes.Then he says imperative. IMIT Your name I want ... Tell me! GIRL

Dylan, Effendi, who it's means armenian prostitute ...  IMIT And who brought you in kerhane,  Dylan? In flach back we see men in uniforms identical to that wears IMIT, horseback, beating with whips women and children,beginning to come out of a village. Among women camera singles Dylan. A man, dressed in civil, shows Dylan, and armed citizens grab her and stow in an oxcart with other girls crying.

 Dylan, standing as it is, in  a corner of her eye sees the Imit's revolver hanging next to the closet.

Short rushes to the closet, pulls the gun from the tray and gives it surprised Imit, telling him hard. DYLAN  Kill me please... don't you see how I become?

Imit takes the gun, throw it on the bed and embraced with affection Dylan.

Now camera follows his lips to kiss Dylan's wounds who receives with alleviate the human touch.

In a moment Dylan seek his lips and guards Imit with passion, while he  feels the passion returns the plan closes with Imit be in the Dylan.) 

Following the German officer from Constantinople, Iffetli will find himself in Bogaz in Armenia, on the Eastern Front, as the Russian troops are retreating and violent efforts are made to move the Armenian population.  Here, he will witness Herbert Neumann’s attempt to satiate his desires on a beautiful Armenian woman who is being led together with a huge crowd of uprooted people to her certain death.  On horseback he approaches the woman and is about to reach out for her when an old woman, in reality her husband in disguise, puts a stiletto to his throat, ready to slaughter him.

Reliving Dylan’s description of the horrors of her experience in the whore-house, Iffetli, being a skilled marksman, kills first the Armenian man and then the woman to save her from all that would have ensued.

Neumann will take revenge on Iffetli for his unacceptable conduct of killing the Armenian woman as well, sending him once again to the scene of the battle.

In this way, Iffetli will find himself in Syria, where Colonel Kemal Ataturk is now the Turkish commander.

Meanwhile in Oakland, Andrew Donahue passes away and Dorothy is at last free to seek the embrace of Major Mason.

However, because all depends on fate, the ship that is carrying the correspondence from Oakland, including Dorothy’s letter, comes up against bad weather and the box of letters is crushed by other parcels and will remain hidden in the hold of the ship for almost three years.

So, when Mason recovers from his wounds in Egypt, he refuses to return to Oakland and insists on being posted on the front… perhaps to find release from his nightmares, which take the form of the Turkish horseman who spares his life… and in doing so, takes his honor, but also from his unfulfilled love.

So, the now Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Mason is transferred to the headquarters of the British Forces under Colonel Allenby, who in his haste to occupy Damascus, blames the French for being too slow in their advance from the coast of Palestine towards the mainland of Syria facing the resistance of the Turks.

At the same time, a complex network of espionage has been developed by both sides, keeping each other’s movements under surveillance so as to be able to predict their next move.

So, when Colonel Allenby entrusts Lieutenant-Colonel Mason with the mission of assessing the situation on the Turkish-French front in Palestine, the German spies were already in the know, while at the same time the English were collecting information in Aleppo concerning the Turkish-German front in Palestine and Syria in the cabarets and red-light districts of the city.

In Aleppo, then, a meeting will occur between two old acquaintances, the now Brigadier Herbert Neumann, who has assumed the command of an important segment of the 7^th Armored Division and Captain Imit Iffetli, who is accompanying the Turkish Chief of Staff of the Turkish regiment, Yildirim under Colonel Kemal.

The evening before the two men’s departure for the front, Neumann celebrates his promotion in a whore-house and Iffetli will become the target of a spy who is operating under cover as a street prostitute in order to extract information about the Turkish regiment in Palestine.

After a long night that turns out to be full of surprises for Iffetli, he returns to Nablus, the headquarters of the Yildirim regiment and takes on the arrest of the surveillance detachment of the English that is to cross the Syrian desert, according to the information from the German espionage network, with a view to entering Palestine.

In accordance with their orders, Mason and his men must reach the fortified German lines in A’rara, a region under Neumann’s command.

Working out the probable routes that will be taken by the English in order to reach A’rara, Iffetli intuitively sets his ambush in Mash-Had and, indeed, forces the men of the English detachment to surrender.

When Iffetli recognizes among them the major whose life he had spared in Gallipoli, their conversation reveals the strength of their character and their profound faith in the honor and dignity of man.

As a result, despite his orders, the Turk does not execute the prisoners and chooses to surrender them to the regiment in Nablus.

However, just outside the village Ya’bad, a German patrol forces the Turkish sergeant to give the English prisoners over in A’rara, where Neumann is in command.

The diabolical Neumann, who is completely indifferent to the fates of the men under his command, sends waves of the Turkish cavalry against the French positions to become their cannon fodder and begins to execute the English prisoners one by one simply to prove to the stunned Iffetli that his convictions concerning honor are absolute hogwash, but just before executing Mason, he is killed by French artillery fire.

In this way, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Mason will remain in a concentration camp as a prisoner of war in Nablus until the collapse of the Eastern Front and the victory of the Allies.

After the signing of the treaty, Imit does not return to Van from Nablus but decides to go to Constantinople in search of the young Armenian prostitute he had met that night in the red-light district, whose memory has remained with him throughout the brutalities of the war.

The only thing he finds, though, is the scorched remains of a whole building block and an old woman living in the ashes of the house of ill-repute.

The old woman asks him for something to eat and Iffetli gives her an apple.

In the light of the gas street-lamp, Iffetli notices in the hand of the old woman the stiletto (tsaka) with the silver handle that he had lost that night in the whore-house… and he will then discover hidden within the ashes the little Armenian prostitute.

Dylan had used Iffetli’s knife to slaughter her last client and had then set fire to the whore-house… only to continue living in its ashes.

38.  ON THE ROAD TO THE WHORE-HOUSE.  EVENING.

In a flash, Imit grabs the old woman by the right wrist so forcefully that her hand opens to relinquish the knife and the apple rolls down into the street.

Then, Imit makes the old woman meet his eye and says:

IMIT

Auntie, where did you find that knife?

In the light of the gas-lamp, reflecting in Imit’s eyes as if he has seen a ghost, pulls her hand away and then reaches out as if to touch Imit.

Imit keeps still and, accepting her touch, asks her again in a gentler voice:

IMIT

Ma’am… I’m asking you again… where did you find that knife?

OLD WOMAN

Was it yours, Efendi?

IMIT

Who are you, ma’am?

OLD WOMAN

Take me away from here and I’ll tell you everything in good time… Efendi Imit!

39.  INT.  IN IMIT’S ROOM.  MIDNIGHT.

In a large deep copper wash-basin full of hot water, the ‘old woman’, having previously used the stiletto to cut away the clothes she is wearing from top to bottom, dips into the water stark naked in front of Imit’s disbelieving eyes.

Then, as she pours hot water over her head from a copper jug that is on a cabinet nearby, the ‘old woman’ begins to tell him who she really is, all the time continuing to pour the water over her:

WOMAN

It’s been two years since the whore-house was burned down…

40.  INT.  IN IMIT’S ROOM.  DAWN.

When Dylan rises from the copper basin, the stunned Imit stares at her in disbelief.

The old bag is transformed into a beautiful woman and the only traces that are reminiscent of her ordeal are the scars on her body from the lashings.

Naked as she is, Dylan takes the silver knife, gives it to Imit and almost clinging to him says:

DYLAN

Imit, Efendi, the knife is yours and so is my life… And it’s not at all strange… I knew that you would return some time to take me away…

With trembling hands, Imit touches her face, the marks on her body and kisses her on the lips.

She returns his caresses touching the scars on Imit’s body.  And the two bodies unite to surrender themselves to an incredible passion erasing the pain that has marked them.

In the next scene, two riders are galloping wildly through the forest.

A golden eagle watches them galloping and a close up reveals Imit and Dylan racing each other through the chestnut forest.

41.  EXT.  PORT SAID.  MORNING.

The port is crowded with people.

Hundreds of people, mostly soldiers from colonial regiments, officers and civilians are waiting to board the ship ‘Liberty’ which is docked at a huge pier.

Among them, Colonel Michael Mason, with visible scars on his face from the wounds of battle, is patiently waiting his turn, when a covered vehicle of the Royal Post Office stops and a soldier begins to search the crowd, calling out repeatedly:

SOLDIER

Colonel Michael Mason from Oakland, New Zealand…

On hearing him, the colonel gestures him to approach.

The soldier greets him and says:

SOLDIER

Please excuse me, on behalf of my Service… but we have received your correspondence almost three years later…

Flash back to the ship carrying the correspondence encountering stormy weather and the letter box from Oakland being crushed under other crates.

Stretching out his hand, Mason takes the yellowing letter and as the soldier takes his leave, the colonel steps out of the line as if hit by lightning.

And just before the final captions, in faraway Oakland, New Zealand, Colonel Michael Mason is fervently embracing Dorothy, who has opened the door to her house and cannot believe her eyes.

THE END