Script inspired by Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino
SETTING
Santosa island, Singapore. Two leaders meet on a fantasy holiday island to work out their differences. They have travelled long distances, overcoming various obstacles, to get here.
The meeting takes place in a closed room, curtains drawn. A large wooden table in the middle of an elaborate yet sparsely furnished room, in an ex-British army barracks five star resort hotel. Glasses, two jugs of water and pads for writing on, also two pens with the leaders name inscribed on them lay on the table also.
The translators are sitting to the left of each of the leaders, every word spoken by the leaders is repeated by the translators. At times additional words are spoken in confidence.
It is their words that we hear spoken. They too have traveled large distances to arrive here. Character descriptions below
PRIMARY CHARACTERS : THE LEADERS
Mr Donald Trump - President of the United States
Chairman Kim Jung-Un - Supreme leader of North Korea
SECONDARY CHARACTERS : THE TRANSLATORS
Marko Polo - (translator to Donald Trump)
Travels frequently between East and West, widely documented but seldom verified. Polo is a gifted story-teller, speaks a number of languages and has a flare for descriptive heroism in the face of adversity. The son of a rich and successful merchant.
Kublai Khan - (translator to Kim Jung-Un)
Second son of a great warrior and grandson of the founding leader of his nation. A man of few words but wise in ways of war. Kublai Khan is afflicted by gout through over-consumption of food and drink, he has a keen interest in the politics and sports of the West.
MUSIC IN:
Theme tune to Sunny Day - 'You've got a Friend'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lj0uH7plEM
THE TITLES APPEAR IN GOLD TEXT OVER ESTABLISHING SHOT OF THE ISLAND:
Overhead drone shots pass over replica pirate ship, Mega-Adventure Park, 4D Wonderland, wave pool simulator, vertical wind tunnel, wax figure museum and the crowning glory Wings of Time performance with pyrotechnics, water fountain, water screens, laser projections and flame bursts.
BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
1 DAY EXT. - CAPELLA RESORT HOTEL - DAY
A Dysney-esque holiday resort. Palm trees, beaches, grassy patches of greenery, an old colonial barracks.
The two leaders enter from opposite sides of a wide verandah, they walk towards each other, meeting each other dead centre. They shake hands.
TRUMP
(Smiling as a holds out his hand, mumbling)
This is it. We made it.
KIM
(Also smiling)
The world is a big place.
TRUMP
(Turning to the cameras)
Yep.
A huge group of media representatives, forty camera-operators and journalists, each wears a large lanyard stating their affiliation.
Behind them are forty men wearing black suits with black sunglasses. Twenty of them are American, twenty are North Korean. There are also men in suits hidden behind trees, on top of roofs and stationed throughout the neighbouring garden.
2 - INT. DAY - A LUSH MEETING ROOM
The two leaders walk into the room followed by their translators. Name tags indicate where each is sitting, a mathematically verified equal distance from the door. The translators shake hands for the first time. Marko Polo is keen to start her translation but the steady paced Kublai Khan takes his time to sit and pour himself a glass of water.
The leaders, now seated, drop their smiles. They stare at each other without watching the translators. Kublai Khan is unfazed by this, he takes in his surroundings, he runs his tongue over his freshly cleaned teeth and he grins. Marko Polo nods.
KIM
(Taking a glass of water)
To long life and happiness.
TRUMP
(Taking a glass but not drinking)
I have a set of glasses like this at home, I have many many glasses. My best friend makes these glasses.
Chairman Kim drinks the glass dry, Kublai Khan refills it for him.
KIM
Is this where we should agree to something? Or does that come later?
Reaching into Marko Polos hand bag, Mr Trump takes out an iPad and powers it up.
TRUMP
(showing Kim)
I brought a video. I thought we could watch it together, that's what best friends do.
KIM
I watched the Apprentice, I didn't like it.
TRUMP
You'll love this, I promise. I got all my friends to make it especially for you.
KIM
I don't know...
TRUMP
Oh come on.
KIM
(Leaning back into his chair)
Very well.
The iPad lights up with images of smiling laughing people, waving flags and clapping crowds, sunsets and clouds. Kublai Kahn cannot see the screen clearly, Marko Polo describes the images for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iby9GnMCmYc
POLO
The sun is setting, clouds are rolling, it's up to the two great leaders to build rail networks between them both.
KHAN
(confused)
I don't understand. This is what you brought?
POLO
Not just this, but yes. History is a retelling of events, a fiction to make sense of where we are now.
KHAN
So this is a story.
POLO
Yes.
Marko Polo looks over to see that her leader is still emerged in the iPad, he is smiling and nodding.
KHAN
My kingdom is my greatest joy, but it is also my prison. Marko Polo, you say you have travelled around the earth in all its orientations, now tell me, what are the great cities of the world that I might discover should time allow.
POLO
But time will not allow it, the cities of the world are too vast, too numerous, to see a fraction. I prefer to show you 8 great structures.
KHAN
If they are great, I will recognise them instantly, since my own great kingdom has everything its people could desire.
POLO
I only know the many places I have been to and seen with my own two eyes...
KHAN
(leaning in conspiratorially)
Go on...
Chairman Kim and President Trump remain unaware of the conversation going on between their translators. The stirring music from the iPad muting their voices.
3 - INT. DAY - THE ABYSS - FICTION AS ABSENCE
POLO
The first is a place known to all, but seldom visited. It is known as the Abyss.
KHAN
I'm not sure I understand.
POLO
The Abyss is a place no compass will find, yet remains close by. It marks a defeated turn from one ideology in betrayal of another. It consumes the heart of those who live in absence. The more hearts that live in absence, the bigger the Abyss becomes.
To stand at the edge of the Abyss is to confront your own fears, to inhabit everything that distorts a rational view of yourself. Many believe that terrifying monsters live at the bottom, where no light can escape and all sound is an augmented roar.
KHAN
But why would anyone search for such a place?
POLO
Once you have seen the Abyss, you carry its residue as a reminder of what may lie ahead if rational sense is lost. The monsters are a consequence of losing all sense of self. Fiction knows no better ally in fear than the Abyss.
KHAN
You think I am afraid?
4 - INT. DAY - THE LADDER - FICTION AS PARODY
President Trump is leaning forward, holding the iPad in both hands. He is crowding the screen, waiting for the moment of his own appearance, then with a wave of recognition he cries out. Chairman Kim reserves reaction, choosing instead to tap his foot in time to the music.
Marko Polo seizes his moment to continue the dialogue with the ever curious Kublai Khan.
POLO
The second great structure is the ladder.
KHAN
(incredulously)
A ladder? In my kingdom we have many. What could we gain from a ladder that we have not mastered centuries ago?
POLO
(smiling knowingly)
The Ladder is as useful as it is difficult to climb.
The ladder needs two surfaces to function, the ground (as status quo), and a horizontal surface (as an irregularity that cannot comply), without either the ladder will fall. A good climber is supported by the status quo, stabilised by any-handed presumptions.
In parody the ladder is only ever as stable as these two surfaces, one uncertain assumption and the climber loses footing. Either the climber falls and must find a way back up, or the ladder must move to a more stable surface elsewhere. A climber on a wobbly ladder won't stay long hanging on for dear life, the public don't want to witness desperation, it's cruel and unseemly. Better to tall in a bloody heap than flail around in uncertainty.
The ladder is not a comfortable place to rest, it's only a way up or down, anything in between is fleeting.
KHAN
(smiling for the first time)
I like comedy. But it needs to be censored for those who do not understand the complexities of politics. And a ladder in the hands of the ruler needs no wall to lean against.
POLO
I don't know about your land, I tell you these fictions because I know of them, but of your own, I have no idea.
Just at this moment, Supreme Leader Kim Jung-Un lets out a snigger. Something he recognised in the crowd scene of admiring citizens.
5 - INT. DAY - THE BARRICADE - FICTION AS RESISTANCE
Chairman Kim clears his throat to regain composure. His translator, Kublai Khan is agitated, not sure how much to trust Marco Polo, though interested to use the opportunity to learn more of the ways of the world.
KHAN
(grips his pencil and whispers)
These fictions you speak of are wild and undisciplined. They should be controlled with a firm hand. No wonder you have crime in the streets and violence in the schools.
POLO
Resistance knows fiction better than any. If you listen a while, I will tell you how.
KHAN
Resistance against the state is futile.
POLO
In your great land, perhaps. But in the cities of the world, I can tell you, resistance is an unstoppable mist and fiction is its cool air.
KHAN
(rocking back on his chair, suspicious)
I'm beginning to have my doubts about you.
POLO
Resistance appears in the strangest of places, momentarily constructed by the breath of the people. Defiant and awkward, the Barricade is not often planned or carefully constructed, it rises up in an unstoppable tide. Once construction has begun, it requires solidarity to clamber on board. The Barricade needs no internal structure, it burns with the passion of hot tempers and tumbles unruly into the streets, holding out and holding in. To dismantle the Barricade is to oppose the will of all who built it, to restore the order of a unyielding doctrine or to bear the danger of descent. A human Barricade is a solemn presence, risking life against ideology.
A well ordered Barricade is another thing altogether, a sign of oppression or defensive power, a reckoning against subversion. It may be a reassuring sign that order is maintained, firmly pointing the finger at those who do not comply.
A porous Barricade is the sign of a benevolent force. A gesture that the individual may set their own limits of division.
The Barricade has no place in positions of equality.
KHAN
(stopping him from continuing)
I don't need your advice on matters of war. These fictions are becoming boring. Stories are for beauty and nature, and the endless summers of childhood.
6 - INT. DAY - AN INFINITE BUNDLE OF STICKS - FICTION AS POSSIBLE WORLDS
President Trump is resting back on his chair now, one foot on his knee, his hands behind his head in self-satisfaction. The video emblazons the title page now, 'Destiny Pictures presents', Mr Trump mouths the words as they are spoken through the iPad. Mr Kim touches his middle finger to his glasses, unsure whether to admit amusement or maintain a cool distain. Mr Trump's translator, Marko Polo senses the discomfort and leans in to Mr Kim's translator with a quiet word.
POLO
(optimistically)
There is another fiction of endless possibility, known to many as the Infinite Bundle of Sticks.
KHAN
All resources are finite. There's no point in pushing your flat-earth climate-change-denial onto me.
POLO
It's a matter of context, I think you'll find.
KHAN
(Raises an eyebrow)
... Not really...
POLO
The Infinite Bundle of Sticks can be found anywhere, but recognising it isn't always easy. To come across a single stick is good fortune, while finding a small bundle may have many uses. A larger bundle may become a burden without some idea of what to do with them, but an infinite bundle of sticks will have every possible permutation and potential. What can you do with something that has no beginning and no end?
An opportunist will sell them off a few at time, a fool will take one for safe keeping and forget the rest. A poet however, will leave them in a bundle and climb inside. There he will find the infinite doorways to worlds never imagined.
Infinite bundles of sticks are a doorway to possible worlds. They can be found anywhere if those searching are looking for it, in a forest, a desert, a drowned city, a prison cell, in the sleeve of a shirt.
KHAN
Ah now we are getting somewhere, I see what you are doing. These fictions are poems, not cities, they cannot exist in the real world since they defy the rules of logic.
POLO
But I assure you they do. I have seen this bundle of sticks myself, I have laid in its branches and made use of the eternal routes.
KHAN
(putting the end of the pencil in his mouth)
If you dream it, that's not quite the same thing. If I made this up myself at least I'd have the satisfaction of knowing it was a lie.
POLO
(shaking his head)
And what would you do there, alone in your castle of lies? It would be a prison, never a palace.
7 - INT. DAY - EVERY CANDLE - FICTION AS EMPATHY
Supreme leader Kim Jung-Un reaches into his pocket for a cigarette. Before he has a chance, Kublai Khan has reached across and offered him a light. The leader sucks in a drag without moving his eye from the screen. Mr Trump is perplexed, they were getting to his favourite part of the film, the part where the music moves into a darker, more dramatic tone, pictures of missiles firing out into the night air, sad faces, prisoners of war. He winced a little, watching the cigarette smoke of Mr Kim twist around his new iPod and rise into the air.
KHAN
(putting the lighter back into his pocket)
And why would I believe a man who believes only in fiction, when everything around him is real?
POLO
You mean the island of Santosa? Nothing here is real, everything was brought here on the promise of a fantasy.
KHAN
And we four? Aren't we part of the same fantasy?
POLO
Let me ask you this. Is the cigarette lighter in your pocket still warm?
KHAN
Naturally.
POLO
Then we are as real as each other. Just as every candle that ever existed confirms the existence of someone who lit it, the candle burns to light another face. It is the fiction of empathy that illuminates our own existence. On every birthday cake, every window sill, in every hand raised to the doorway, at every graveside or staircase. Every candle is a reminder that you are not alone. The flame of the candle burns for someone, or else it cannot burn at all. It is another human being wanting to be seen.
Every lit candle must also die out, and so we feel a stab of pain for every human who will live only to die. Empathy takes shelter in such futility, and so we look for the flame in every window and door we pass.
KHAN
(twisting the lighter in his pocket)
Unless they burn for only for our imagination.
POLO
You think so? Check your pocket again.
8 - INT. DAY - THE MONUMENT - FICTION AS MYTHOLOGY
The video on Mr Trump's iPad is becoming tiresome. Mr Kim is polite enough to endure it, but it strikes him that this might be a diversion. This movie's significance is already under the shadow of the future about to be revealed. Mr Kim imagines an image of the moment he and Mr Trump will step out of this meeting, to the delight of the people.
KHAN
The warmth in my pocket will fade, just as your stories will drift away like shifting sand.
POLO
This moment will fade, I agree. The past is always expanding, while the present is constantly defeated.
KHAN
You talk in riddles, all these people and places are in your imagination.
POLO
And now they are in yours too.
KHAN
Here today, gone tomorrow. What makes you think any of this will stick?
POLO
History selects those moments that pass from one time to another, everything else collects dust. There is a monument entirely made of glass, a towering mythic monolith. In the midst of the city, sandwiched between stone columns and poured concrete, the glass monument is pitch black from the dirt of smoke and petrol fumes. Up close you can see the initials of tourists and lovers scratched into the dirt. On winter mornings the shade from the monument casts an icy shadow on the streets below, frequently causing accidents, and assuring it as unpopular with locals. Every now and then an ambitious politician or a well-meaning social group in a rash of civic pride will clean up the monument to give the city new life, but the grime of daily life always catches up. At the base is a miserable bunch of broken objects accumulated over time, the hands of a ceramic goddess, the cap of a camera lens, the missing page from a novel. Lost objects and forgotten histories end up here scratching at the base of the monument, adding to the disarray with forgotten purpose.
KHAN
Then this meaning is doomed to irrelevance, a broken ash tray and Destiny's Pictures with no storyline...
9 - INT. DAY - THE LABYRINTH - FICTION AS TRANSPOSITION
The 45th President of the United States has noticed that his new friend is losing enthusiasm, but he knows there is a great finale to his film, a moment that will bind them together for eternity. He imagines taking this new friend back to his house, how impressed Mr Kim would be by his beautiful family, by his flat screen television and his gold-leaf plated living room. And for a moment, he imagines his entire life's wealth here in this meeting room. He wished he had put a second video onto his iPod with a few of his favourite things, so that the comparison was clear.
KHAN
...And these two will be forgotten like broken vases. Accessories to an episode that crumbles into history's rubble.
POLO
You and I are made from different metal. We will meet again in time, I'm sure.
KHAN
I hope next time will be in a more befitting setting. The lush lands of your fantasy kingdom would be surely be far more appropriate than this place.
POLO
But which kingdom did you think I was speaking about? All of these fictions are located on Santosa.
KHAN
Santosa?
POLO
Every time I describe these fictions I am thinking of Santosa.
KHAN
I will build Santosa in my own kingdom then, and you can visit me there. I will send you directions.
POLO
Santosa needs no directions. It is more fiction than you and I, and transposes to any place. It is a Labyrinth meant to reference only itself.
Those that enter the Labyrinth do so with the purpose of getting lost, so maps and directions are useless. The present location in a Labyrinth is impossible to mark, since there is ultimately nowhere to arrive except back out of the Labyrinth. You begin to feel you've been here before but since there is no way of knowing this place from the last, you may be reliving the past as the future. Once you surrender to being lost, purpose disintegrates and you begin to live this place as you remember somewhere else. You transpose every thought, every experience from your past life onto this one. That's why visitors to Labyrinthine cities often recognise people and places from their home. This is the purpose of the Labyrinth. Inside every hidden corner is the potential of someone you already met.
Kublai Khan turns towards Chairman Kim in an act of solidarity. The video has almost finished and the soon all possibilities of questions will be lost.
10 - INT. DAY - THE FRAME - FICTION AS VALUE CREATION
The last moments of Mr Trump's video shows Mr Kim and Mr Trump, each waving from video billboards either side of a busy New York City street, fast jet boats, children in incubators, seaside resorts and final statement, 'The future remains to be written'. Mr Kim pauses a moment, not quite sure how to respond. He considers the 'American future', this outpouring of friendship and side-show fun was not something he had expected. He shut his eyes a moment and the face of his father flashed through his mind.
Mr Kim's translator, the esteemed Kublai Khan, rested his pencil on his notebook, the logo of Santosa Island cheerily beamed out at the top. Not wishing to interrupt the Chairman, he simply draws a square on the empty page.
KHAN
(thought but not spoken)
If this frame is the world as you see it, where can we find these rich fictions you speak of? Where are the ideologies of equality and the freedoms to express respect for human kind?
POLO
(thought but not spoken)
Well, I can't say. Parts of each fiction are throughout this world.
KHAN
(thought but not spoken)
Then there might as well be none, if there is no possibility to live it... You said there 8 places, you have only shown me 7.
POLO
(thought but not spoken)
Yes. The final destination is the frame itself. The frame has just two parts, an inside and an outside. One side gives value, the other takes it. All potential exchanges are present in this simple contrast in value. No matter where the frame exists, the creative power of value follows.
Content and context are bound together by the frame, spawning value like bacteria in a petri-dish. Abstraction of the frame ensures it is endlessly divisible, or exponentially multiplied.
When the frame itself is no longer visible, the mechanisms of value have simply become weightless, a pervasive structure freed from self-declaration by a worldview that upholds its every structure.
Fiction as a frame will maintain its value so long as belief in the frame remains intact. Only through disrupting this belief can value be meaningfully reassessed. This is why the frame is constantly negotiated in a grab for power.
KHAN
(thought but not spoken)
There is no escaping it then?
POLO
(thought but not spoken)
No escaping it.
11 - INT. DAY - THE SIGNING
A large desk flanked with American and North Korean flags. The two leaders sit side by side at a table. A leather bound folder sits in front of both of them. The two Leaders, from orthodox East & West, take their pens, and sign the document. Nobody knows what is written in the document, but that they have agreed it is conclusive, they are writing history.
END
