What follows is the result of an idea to connect the field of philosophy and thought with the world of drama. Let us choose sentences to ponder from the statements of the members of the philosophical group, which are archived in the “Chistiha Blog” (http://chistiha.blogfa.com); and after manipulating the concepts of those statements, and doing a brief exercise and editing, let us create a dramatic idea that will continue to form another dialogue, another concept, and another thought.
In the principles of drama writing, “ideation” and “drafting” have a specific method; but we tried to be one step before the idea and the plot. At the same stage of mental spark or, in our own words, the “study” stage, where the writer’s hand is open to writing down any image, concept, or point. Here, we have not limited ourselves to not mentioning the technical instructions, performance arrangements, dialogue, staging, and other matters, and left them for more detailed plans; on the contrary, we have completely written down whatever came to mind at the moment.
During our group meetings, we came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to obtain refined and precise plans from our conversations. It was only necessary to immediately edit and record everything that came to mind in an instant as a “study.”
And now we share the same with you. May these exercises and sketches be the beginning of a path to step on a bridge between philosophy and drama.
Ideas on the Bridge from Philosophy to Drama: Etude One Hundred and Seventeen
Note: These sketches have been registered with the Islamic Culture and Guidance Department. And the intellectual property belongs to the author.
These sketches are only allowed to be republished on the “Chistiha” site.
Etude one hundred and third
Short film; seven to ten minutes
- We enter the story in the middle of a quiet fight. The fight is in the alley. Every now and then we hear a dog barking. An elderly woman is very quietly warning her neighbor who is a young boy. He also responds more quietly that “God is our witness, we are empty-handed now.” And moans of this kind. And next to the boy stands a girl with messy blond hair and gray and crimson pajamas. That reach down to the bottom of her plastic slippers. And she is watching with her hands on her waist and from time to time she raises her voice and answers the old woman in a Latin tone. She has a thick voice that is in no way proportional to her thin and thin body. The fight is over the garbage that the cats are pulling out of the garbage bag into the bar bin and making the alley so dirty that we are seeing.
We give the old woman the right, who has lived in this alley for thirty years. And all the neighbors and houses are old and beautiful. And the alley is charming. But this boy and girl, who are tenants of a small, poor room in a house, have just arrived. However, we also identify with the boy.
After this fight, the old woman finally wins and the girl, with all her pomp and circumstance, takes the old woman’s broom from her hand and sweeps the lonely alley in this cloudy evening. There is no one. The old woman brings a water hose from her yard and sprays water on the asphalt behind the girl’s broom. The boy collects the rest of the garbage with a nylon bag that the old woman gave him.
- The old woman is cooking in her house.
- The girl and the young boy are in their upstairs apartment, adjusting the satellite dish on the only balcony in their house, which is both a staircase with a railing and an exit door. The boy adjusts the dish and the girl tests the channels. A large hunting dog is also moving between the inside of this room and the balcony. The girl, who is lounging on the only couch, opens a sausage. And puts it in the dog’s mouth little by little. And kisses the dog. The boy enters the room, more tired than before. He wants to lie down and watch satellite. The girl does not give him room. The boy lies on the floor. The floor of the room is empty. And only a blanket cut and half thrown on the floor of the room and nothing else. The dog squats next to the boy, closes his eyes and sleeps. The boy lies on the blanket in front of the TV and falls asleep. At his feet is a large ashtray; with about thirty cigarette butts. The girl goes to the corner of the room that acts as a kitchen. She sits in that corner. She takes her mobile phone and enters the messenger. There is no living thing in the room. If there is anything, it is used and discarded; even the TV on the floor and the receiver next to it.
- The old woman is washing dishes in her house. She arranges the dishes in a container with obsessive precision.
- We are on the other side of the girl’s cell phone line. A person is lying on a mattress on the floor of a relatively empty room with almost new furniture, holding a cell phone. It is a video messenger. We see the same girl on her cell phone screen. They are talking to each other. In sign language. They do not speak. They point with their hands. And lip-read. They say numbers. And they order. We gradually realize that they are using this method to order drugs because they do not have voice messages or text messages.
- The old woman is resting. Next to her on a sideboard, a collection of photo frames of her grandchildren from childhood to adulthood, next to the Eiffel Tower and the Tower of Pisa and the Sydney Opera House. The old woman, reclining on a single green velvet sofa, puts her swollen leg on a short green velvet footstool, and pulls up her skirt, which has gone up, and covers her calf. And stares at one of the photo frames on the small table next to her. A photo of her grandson in an apple orchard.
- The girl whose orders are finished and we understand that she has to pick up the order tomorrow. Towards the end of the conversation, the man lying on the mattress points out to the girl how messy her hair is. The girl runs a hand through her messy hair and pretends to laugh, which is natural; she has just woken up. The conversation ends. Next to the man’s mattress, there are packages of various drugs that are prepared and packaged or on a digital scale. And along the movement of the camera pan, we reach papers and small bags and a nylon press on a table under the window. And the window that shows a city from above.
- The old woman’s kitchen window is steaming. The old woman’s hand comes to turn off the stove flame. And then she pours some food with a spoon into a dish so that he can taste it.
- The girl comes to the dog lying on the floor. And changes the channel with her mobile phone. The different sounds of the channels have woken the boy. The dog suddenly barks. To the balcony. And goes, wagging its tail. The girl gets up impatiently and goes to look out the corner of the window. She witnesses that the old woman has reached for a bowl of food and has a smile on her face.
- The old woman stands in the hope of opening the door. She looks up. Maybe she noticed the window, maybe not. She is disappointed. She has to go back.
- The boy turns off the TV. And he comes to get up, but his foot hits a cigarette butt and he falls.
- The girl comes by the window and sits lazily on the couch. And he is packing his things in his backpack. The conversation between the two makes us realize that they have started a life together without any foundation; and they are not very committed yet. And the girl doubts whether she will stay or not. And of course she has no place to go. And the boy, who does not have a stable and clear job, does not have the financial means to support her. And the girl prefers to go by bus to her hometown tonight: (let’s say Kashmar). At least there, maybe her parents, who have lied to them all these years, will believe with another lie that the girl should prepare herself for the specialized entrance exam. In this trip, she will probably get help from the same man who sells drugs and is supposed to come to the door tonight and deliver the drugs to this boy.
- The old woman turns on the lights in her yard. It is dusk. She looks at the window of the neighbor opposite. Their room is still silent.
- The girl stands on the stairs; she bends down and pet the dog. The dog clings to her legs. The girl comes down the stairs in a hurry. As soon as she opens the door, she sees the old woman come back with a tray of food in her hand. The girl hides the backpack behind the door.
- The boy witnesses the girl and the old woman talking from behind the window.
- There is a wave of kindness on the old woman’s face. She says of herself. That she is a village child. And when she was young, she was a farmer. And now her grandchildren have all gone abroad. And her children and her bride and groom have also gone to the other side of the water for years. She is from Kashmir. This is where the girl finds a sense of belonging to the old woman. Her feeling of being a fellow citizen towards her changes. She has now forgotten her Latin tone that she had during the fight; And politely thanks the old woman.
- At that moment, the man’s car comes and stops at the door of the old woman’s house. The man gets out of his car. He looks at the girl. The girl looks at him strangely. A cold look. In the middle of the two, the old woman picks up her tray and goes back to her own house in the yard, where the door is open. And she stands on the threshold, watching. The girl has made her decision. She takes the food up the stairs. The boy has seen everything that has happened from the window. The man, realizing that he must go back, turns to the old woman on the threshold of the alley and says, “You have a beautiful alley.” And he gets in, starts his car, and leaves.
- The mobile phone rings. The image of the man sitting in his car, angry, appears on the screen. The girl’s hand cuts off the mobile phone. Next to him is a bowl of food. The boy pulls the food towards him. The girl slaps the boy’s hand. And with a sweet frown, she says that she has to wait to set the table. The boy is surprised. They have never set the table before. And this is the first time. The girl searches the kitchen like a housewife for a fork and spoon. She has found the feeling of being a housewife.
- The table is wide and beautifully laid. It is the same food. The old woman slams the spoon into the dish. And puts it in her mouth. Behind her, the photos of her grandchildren, smiling. We feel that the photo frames have increased. The wind is blowing outside the window. Maybe.
In this story, there should be identification with the boy. And what has unemployment done to this generation. So that they have no choice but to sleep. All this should be included in the first few dialogues of the film.
Author: B. Khosravani
It is recalled that any copying and extraction of these ideas, from an ethical and legal perspective, is only possible by mentioning the address, and use for performance will only be possible if the author’s written consent is obtained.