HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM CONTEST WINNER

Date: 8/29/08

Title: "RECROSSING THE DANUBE"

Author: CORNELIU MITRACHE

Submitted by CORNELIU MITRACHE

Submitted to: HSCL

Format: SP

Pages: 112

Time: 1980's and 1990's

Locale: Romania and U.S.A.

Genre: Drama

Analyst: Hollywoodscript.com

PREMISE: Against the backdrop of brutal Communist oppression in Romania, the
growing but forbidden attraction an Air Force cadet has for an elusive actress
will lead to his dramatic escape to the West and the ignition of circumstances
that will spin completely out of control.

QUICK COMMENT: Based on a true story. Very rich and feelingful. Historically
relevant. Deep and illuminating.

Concept VERY GOOD

Characterization EXCELLENT

Dialogue EXCELLENT

Story Line GOOD

Setting/Prod. Values EXCELLENT

Freshness of Story VERY GOOD

SYNOPSIS: After the fall of communism, Doru, now a New Yorker, returns to the
old country for a once in a lifetime mission. Flushed with emotion, he travels
to Romania, and he takes us back to his Air Force cadet days when he befriended
a fellow pilot (Radu) whose father was a colonel in the dreaded Securitate
(secret police).

He remembers that the drama in Radu's family was so thick that Doru could almost
cut it with his bayonet. It didn't help that Radu's uncle had defected to the
West, and that the vengeful Colonel had severed all contact between the family
and his brother overseas. Adding thunder to it all, Radu's grandfather was a
sworn anticommunist, and Radu himself wrote inflammatory political poems. And as
if that wasn't enough excitement, Radu's fiancee Simina was the daughter of a
controversial union leader who struggled for a better life for his fellow
miners.

Doru sits back and remembers it all as if it were yesterday, and especially the
unrequited love of his life.

Things accelerated for him when Radu invites Doru and his girlfriend (Lily) to
watch his fiancee perform in Chekhov's The Seagull, at the Theatre Institute in
Bucharest. Siminas rendition of Nina sweeps Doru, (a theatre buff), off his
seat.

DORU
(to Simina)
If Chekhov had seen your performance, he would have fired the director and tried
to seduce you.

Simina can only smile, which melts Doru's very being.

Since Doru and his date Lily have no hotel accommodations, Simina invites them
to spend the night in her roommate's bed, (who is gone for the weekend). Lily, a
woman who has sensed competition, takes this opportunity to show off her
irresistible sex appeal. Doru tries to undermine her game by fighting his
erection, by methods ranging from imagining his entire family being run over by
a train, to Russian invasions, the Ice Age, earthquakes, blizzards-the whole
nine yards. But Lily's moist lips and devilish tongue are no match for his most
sincere counterattack.

Doru cannot help falling in love with the budding actress, but he is a lonely
knight charging against a formidable fortress erected by Simina and Radu's
common past. Finally disillusioned, Doru flees Romania by piloting a plane
filled with desperate women and children who are anxious to join their loved
ones abroad. Just before his escape, Simina pays him a surprise conjugal visit.

DORU
You're a work of art... It feels sacrilegious to make love to you.

SIMINA
I didn't come here for sensual pleasure. I came for a moment of forbidden
togetherness. I want you to remember me... Wherever you are, a good witch is
watching over you.
(softly)
There is a part of me that's in love with you.

The miners led by Simina's father revolt. The Dictator arrives to win them with
empty promises, but the strikers greet his helicopter with rocks. Radu's father
receives orders to crush it. Simina's father is arrested and dies in a
suspicious accident. Simina is heartbroken when she is expelled from the Theatre
Institute.

Radu threatens to leave the country if his father doesn't tell him the truth
about the accident. The Securitate colonel finally admits to having carried out
the murder of the union leaders. Disgusted with his father and the regime he
represents, Radu convinces Simina to follow Doru's example and escape.

After having his letters intercepted by the Securitate, Doru calls his friends
and volunteers to help them reach the West safely. Simina reassures an insecure
Radu of her love.

SIMINA
No matter what Doru feels for me, it cannot overcome our common past and our
present trials. I've loved you since I was a little girl and I'll continue to do
so until the end of time.

As Doru waits on the Yugoslavian bank, Simina and Radu swim across the Danube.
Suddenly a patrol boat appears, sprays them with gunfire, and speeds away.
Simina is hurt. Doru swims toward his friends and helps Radu bring Simina to the
shore. Blood gushes from her chest and, just before she dies in Radu's arms, she
whispers to Doru:

SIMINA
Your remembrance of me will make me live forever...

Radu and Doru bury Simina on a hilltop. In vain Doru tries to get Radu to join
him in going to the West.

RADU
Make a note of this unmarked grave, my friend. Someday I would like to have her
company.

Radu swims back to Romania and recounts their misadventure to his grandmother.
Then he disappears into the night and drowns himself in a nearby river.

Fast forward to after the fall of Ceausescu's regime. Doru lands in Romania and
hires his cousin to drive him across the border, where he grimly digs up
Simina's remains. He wants to bury her where she belongs. But Doru's cousin has
second thoughts about smuggling the skeleton into Romania. Doru builds a float
and hauls his precious cargo across the Danube. The following day Radu's ghost
is finally reunited with Simina's as they're lain together for all eternity.

Before going back to America, Doru makes a sentimental journey to the town of
his aviation days. He ends up in Lily's apartment building, where he runs into
her six-year old daughter. When Lily appears on the balcony, Doru is stunned
seeing her. She has the body of a middle-aged woman weathered by hardships,
botched abortions, and an abusive husband. Doru thrusts a roll of hundred-dollar
bills into the girl's hand, worth about a year's salary in post-communist
Romania, and takes off.

Three years later, Doru revisits Romania. In the capital's central park he
stumbles upon the ex-Securitate colonel, now a political ex-convict. Without
introducing himself, Doru brings up Chekhov's play, wondering aloud whatever
happened to his beloved actress and her fly boy. He discovers that Radu's father
has been eaten away by inescapable remorse.

The ex-Securitate colonel and Doru are the only adults weeping at that
particular hour in the park that day.

COMMENTS: This script delivers a fascinating and true to life insight into how
it must have been living in this oppressive communist state during these
memorable times. It comes to you from many angles. The mindless, robotic and
heartless workings of the State to those resourceful souls who had to live under
this cloud of constant scrutiny and yet full of spirit and hope especially when
big brother's not looking. But it's all wrapped into a tragic cocoon of
unrequited love, daring escape and adventure, high emotions and inevitable
disaster. There's also lots of irony and gallows humor, combined with wartime
lust and moment to moment living, underwritten with passion, love and the utter
incompleteness of life, particularly in these times. This script is a class act,
chocked full of honestly memorable characters that would make a compelling and
ever so worthwhile film.

 

TO CONTACT WRITER DIRECTLY
cmitrache@yahoo.com

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