Screenplay

Teaser 1

EXT. REYKJAVIK STREET - PRESENT DAY, MIDNIGHT

A quiet, lone night. A young woman; THE STRANGER (24) sits by herself at cafe. Weak raindrops run down the glass window, bathing inside in an eerie neon glow. Young, but by the look in her eyes she could be ten years older. The Stranger cups her hands around a mug. She takes a sip, savoring the taste. Then stares into the bottom of the mug. A WAITER delivers her bill, then tends to another table. The Stranger tucks away the paper, picks up her large duffle bag and sneaks out. Disappearing without a second thought. The Waiter returns to the table, bewildered. He runs outside, looking in both directions.					

EXT. CITY STREET. MIDNIGHT

A graveyard stretches over one length of the street. The Stranger walks alone. She pulls out a cigarette and tries but fails to light it. 

STRANGER

Fuck!

The Stranger throws the lighter into the road. Keeps walking. A car drives by playing loud techno music, she stumbles on the pavement and notices a HOODED FIGURE appearing on the corner of the street behind her. She squints her eyes, blurry. She quickly walks away. The figure follows. She turns back. Figure is still there. The Stranger turns into a graveyard by the street.

EXT. GRAVEYARD - CONTINUOUS

She hears GRAVELED FOOTSTEPS behind her. She quickens her pace. The Figure matches her pace.  He's pushing her.

STRANGER

Fuck off!

The Figure slows for a beat. Then walks even faster.

STRANGER (CONT’D)

(to herself)

What the fuck is this.

The Stranger rushes out on the other side of the graveyard. The figure copies.

EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - CONTINUOUS

The Stranger keeping pace. She scouts the streets. She’s looks very small against the empty streets and towering houses and buildings. She stumbles but the adrenaline makes her focused. She turns back to the Figure.

STRANGER

What do you want?!

No response.	

STRANGER (CONT’D)

Fuck it.

She runs. The Figure runs. Turns on the next street. 

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS

The Strangers goes door to door of apartment complexes. Locked.  Shit. Every door - locked. locked. locked. The Figure is catching up. Each door locked. The Stranger tries a final door...

Open!	

She rushes in and slams the door shut and locks it. Just in time. The Figure is furious, SLAMS on the glass and CRACKS it.  

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS

The Stranger drops her bag to the ground, catching her breath. The Figure observes from outside. Looming. The Stranger thrusts the middle finger, and the Figure slowly retreats into the shadows. The Stranger looks over the place, finding names on the mailing boxes and stops on one					

DR. EMILIA EYVINDSDÓTTIR

The Stranger takes the stairs.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

The Stranger reaches Apartment 202. KNOCKS. A moment.

EMILIA (O.S.)

 (through intercom)

Yes

STRANGER

Can I come in?

No response.

STRANGER (CONT’D)

Please?

EMILIA (O.S.)

 (through intercom)		

 I don’t know you.

STRANGER

Someone was following me and I thinK	

they’re still outside. Can I come in?

Still nothing.

STRANGER

C'mon, just for a bit, please.

A long beat. Then the door slowly opens. Revealing EMILIA (55). A reserved, confident, quiet beautiful woman. The two bemused at the other. The Stranger squeezes past into the apartment.

 EMILIA

   Uh...Excuse me...

Emilia shuts the door.		

INT. EMILIA’S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS					

The apartment is picked out of the 60's: flourished with retro furnishings and littered with ornaments, books and files. Years of living. The Stranger works around the room like a kid in a sweet shop.

EMILIA

....Who are you?

The Stranger pauses at a bookcase and picks out a book.

RESEARCH ON ANTHROPOLOGY

STRANGER

So you’re that kind of doctor.

EMILIA

(Concerned)

Are you hurt?

STRANGER

I’m fine. Thanks for letting me in.

The Stranger drops her bag and collapses onto the couch.

Emilia observes the younger woman.

EMILIA

You’re drunk.

The Stranger pulls her fingers together to say: “a bit”.

EMILIA (CONT’D)

Who was following you?

STRANGER

Someone.

Emilia peers out the window looking onto the street.

EMILIA

Whoever it was I think they've lost interest.

The Stranger rummages through her bag to pull out a phone and charger.

STRANGER (CONT’D)

Can I?

EMILIA

Go ahead.

The Stranger finds a socket and sits beside it. She takes in more details of the room. It's nice but what stands out is a big black stain on the wall. 

STRANGER

It’s a nice place. Really nice.

EMILIA

It's my father’s. Can I get your name?

STRANGER

Does he live here too?

EMILIA

						No.

STRANGER

Did he die here? It smells funny.

EMILIA

It’s the bird.

STRANGER

There’s a bird here?

EMILIA

It’s dead too. But not anymore.

STRANGER

  You resurrected it?

EMILIA

No,  I mean..it was dead. It’s still

dead. I mean that's why it’s not here

 anymore.

The Stranger looks to her, blank.

EMILIA

It was an accident. It caught fire from a candle.

  (beat) 

				The bird’s tail caught fire and it

  went crazy.  I tried to safe it but the fire... The only 

thing I could do was to hide under the table

 so fire wouldn’t catch me.

Then of course the fire spread and it

   flew off screeching around the room

    and ended up flying into the wall over there.

Emilia nods to a wall with a large black stain in the centre.

STRANGER 

Well. That explains that.

EMILIA

Yeah. And now the place smells like.....

Stranger

...A dead bird 

The Stranger goes to the wall and runs her fingers over the edge of the stain.

STRANGER

You should air the place out now and

 again. It'd stop this place smelling

 like a crematorium.

The Stranger sits back on the sofa.

EMILIA

Is there anyone I can call for you? A taxi?

Stranger

There’s no-one.

EMILIA

Okay. Well, 

you can stay here if..

The Stranger lies down. Her eyes close as she mumbles. 

STRANGER

Thanks. You’re weird.

Eyfilm©

Screenplay

Teaser 2

INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Black screen

KATLA VO

When I was younger I thought

butterflies looked just like they do

in the cartoons. So when I saw one

flying by. I ran after it and I caught

it and created a little cage with my hands. 

I closed my eyes and 

 made a wish. when I opened my hand to set it free.  

I realised. It was

completely colorless. Grey and ugly. It

wouldn’t fly away. I got scared, I

was shaking my hand to get rid of it,

but it wouldn’t let go of me. So I

clapped my hands together. And ...

I just

killed it. I killed it. 

 For just being

 ugly

Katla looking directly to the camera, and then we move out and reveal the room. We open on a dimly-lit, almost desolate room that is supposed to resemble a teenager's bedroom. Utilitarian-like.

 The walls are coated in black and grey colored spray paint, some bits resemble beautifully dark wall art, other parts there’s poetry. KATLA (14) is spraying one dark wall with

golds and blues that contrasts the dullness of everything else.

On a table sits a bowl with thick red liquid which we

presume to be blood.

KATLA VO (cont'd)

I started bleeding on a full moon.

HEKLA (16) enters. She wears a see-through mask that  conceals her face. Katla stops painting. Hekla says something to Katla, we only hear MUFFLED SOUNDS, but her expression is steeled, it’s as if she’s spitting out her words.					

Katla looks like she’s getting nervous.

She turns around and faces the camera. Looks directly into the lense. The camera lingers on Katla as she gets various Tourette tics, she throws her hand sideways, her head jolts back, special signs with her hands,. WHISTLING, “Ah!” sounds. She blinks clears her throat.

Behind her, Hekla is spraying over her golden painting with black. The more aggressive the tics  more aggressive Hekla covers the painting.  The tourette tics and sounds make a circle, this creates a circle of sounds and then, it goes faster and faster.

The last golden paint is exactly where Katla’s head is.

Katla closes her eyes. It’s like Hekla is painting Katla’s mind black.	

SILENCE.

KATLA VO (cont'd)

     Mum told us once that I got dad’s	

looks and my sister got mum’s. She

never looked at me quite the same

after that.

Katla opens her eyes. Looks at Hekla. Katla takes the blood and throws it on Hekla’s face. The plastic mask is all soaked in blood. Unclear images with one single light dangling above them while Hekla locks Katla inside a closet.

INT. BEDROOM. CLOSET - NIGHT

She’s now in a dark place, and so are we.

KATLA VO

 I looked up this feeling. They call

 it la-pell-do-veed in France (l’appel

du vide). Call of the void. Do you

ever get that? That feeling when

you’re really up high and you get the

 urge to jump. Apparently it’s quite

common.

A man is caressing Hekla a little too lovingly on the TV in the dark space where Katla is. 

(animation)

 KATLA VO (cont'd)

He liked her with long blond hair so

she cut it short and

painted it. Black.

Hekla is cutting her pig tails off with scissors.

O.S Scissors SNAPPING.

Hekla takes the scissors and snaps them at Katla.

KATLA VO (cont'd)

Sometimes I think of pushing her out the window. I almost did

 it once.

Hekla is standing with her back facing us, We quickly move towards her like we could almost push her. She turns around.

Cut to black

KATLA VO (cont'd)

 That’s before I met her. 

Teaser 3

w/ shotlist

Colour of morning

INT. CAROL'S BEDROOM - DAY

HIGH ANGLE/DUTCH ANGLE/DIAGONAL ANGLE

Naked COUPLE lying in bed, we see from the silky smooth smoke that comes from the man's cigarette, that he's awake. This is FRANK (25) resting his hands stretched behind his head, kind of a cowboy looking young man, light messy hair, that kind that works with his hands. This could be a bedroom you would visit when you want a happy ending. 

MS (pan)

Stylish/red underwear lie on a chair by the bed, her high heels, his very old/worn leather boots, two cellphones on the bedside table on her side, with a ashtray, mirror, ripped condoms and massage oil. Dreamcatcher with shells that CLING carefully by the open window. By the sweat on Frank's face we know it's hot outside. 

MCU

The smoke from the cigarette and the orange/brown rays of morning light shine through the ruffled tape above the curtains make a pattern of fingers stretching on to the walls and onto Franks face.

Franks pondering seriously at something on the ceiling. Franks POV of the ceiling that is painted green, but the red under it shines through, like somebody was in a hurry painting over a crime scene.

MCU

Franks looks at CAROL (21) who's sleeping facing him.

CU

She has full red lips like she has been kissed passionately all night, it's contrasting her beautiful pale silk complexion and dark long hair. Her breathing is calming with her chest rising and falling, rising and falling. Sound of BREEZE and RUMBLING/CLINGING of the empty shells from the dreamcatcher and Carol drags the duvet cover over herself. Frank kisses her. She opens one eye slowly, she moves away from him, turns around in the bed like she's rejecting him.

He sighs disapprovingly, staring at the back of her head. The sound of the SHELLS clinging against each other uneasily with the breeze, like it's catching a bad dream.

The light/ shadow fingers of light turn into prison bars on Frank's face. His eyes travel on the bedside table. A watch lies there.

CU

Silver watch with a gold line, looks expensive, nothing that he could afford, or her for that matter, with a inscriptions written on it.

ALWAYS YOURS

CAROL

Her phone starts to VIBRATE on the table.

UNKNOWN CALLER.

Her hand grabs the phone, holds it close to her chest, under the covers. Frank stands up quickly.

Handheld camera (unsteady) as the feelings arise. Frank's grabs his pants, boots.

He walks quickly inside a bathroom on the side of the bedroom. From the bed a mirror frames him tightly, It's dark where he stands, we hear sounds of TOILETRIES, the LOUD CLING in silver buckles on his belt.

Carol sits up slowly. She's almost tearing up. He's comes out of the bathroom doesn't look at her, now he's dressed. She holds the duvet close to her body, stands up slowly from the bed, fighting her tears without him noticing, he moves around so fast that he's out of breath.

He stops for a second, looks at the watch on the table. For a second. Than at her. He bites his lips together, like he wants to hug her and slap her at the same time.

She stands up, moves slowly towards him, drops the duvet on the floor. Duvet falls on the floor. 

MCU

She hesitantly stretches her arms around him. 

He pushes her away, rejects her arms.

FRANK

Don't.

CAROL

Sorry.