Out of the Wings

Cinema utoppia (c.1985), Ramón Griffero

Cinema utopia : 'Third Day'

Cinema utopia, translated by Catherine Boyle

'Third Day'

Context:

This is the third day that the characters in the stalls have come to see an episode of the film.

Sample text

The USHER, worried and depressed because nobody has arrived, rings the bell. The lights are going down when laughter is heard. Everyone is arriving.

The Film

Music. ESTEBAN is filming, camera, tripod, SEBASTIAN and the LANDLORD are acting. The PROSTITUTE is holding a spotlight. We catch the end of the take, which they do again.

ESTEBAN:: No, no, cut, cut
LANDLORD:: This film business isn’t so easy, is it?
ESTEBAN:: Camera. Action ... Ca suffit ...
PROSTITUTE:: En fin, ca suffit ...
LANDLORD:: I brought you some wine to celebrate the end of the filming ...

The LANDLORD and the PROSTITUTE go off to the bathroom. SEBASTIAN sits melancholy at the edge of the window. ESTEBAN tries to get close to tell him something.

ESTEBAN:: Sebastian ...
SEBASTIAN:: Yes ...
ESTEBAN:: Nothing. We can talk later.; SHE appears behind the window.
HER:: How many years will pass before we go back?
SEBASTIAN:: I don’t know. It seems so far away to me.
HER:: These long winters are tiring, they’re so cold and windy, and the streets are full of shit.
SEBASTIAN:: I’d go back for the sun, the fruit. I’d go back to climb hills.
ESTEBAN:: The bastards! The bastards! They took her just because she dared!
HER:: Let’s go back. Just to be calm. To hide away.
LANDLORD: (He comes out of the bathroom in a state of high excitement.): Tell them, tell them ... did you know that the woman on the third floor pays this boy to suck ...
SEBASTIAN: (Violently, he throws them out of the flat.): Get out of here! (They walk in front of the window, laughing at him.)
ESTEBAN:: Sebastian, sometimes dreams come true, but sometimes, too, nightmares come true. It was a humid night in Buenos Aires, three o ‘clock in the morning, they took her away naked, she fought back, but they injured her, we only know what the neighbours see ...

The image on the screen freezes. The lights go up in the house, some of the characters turn round, taking on the role of the witnesses. They face the audience.

THE WITNESSES:

SEÑORA:: I couldn’t sleep that night. The heat was unbearable. I heard some shots, and I said to Rafael, ‘get up, something’s going on’.
RABBIT MAN:: I got up. But it was the same as usual. There were a few civilians, with machine guns. You should have seen her struggling, the poor girl. But you know, you can’t do anything when that sort of thing happens.
SEÑORA:: They were so nice, we always chatted. They seemed so studious. They took her away naked, the poor girl ...
ESTELA:: I heard some shots and her screaming, they took him too, he looked as if he was already dead, the lift was covered in blood.
RABBIT MAN:: Someone else will be wandering around the square with their posters with the names and the faces on it.
SEÑORA:: You can’t get involved, because then the same thing happens to you.
ARTURO:: Anyway, I never saw anything ... why on earth should I go and give evidence?; The house lights go down. We return to ‘Utoppia’. Sebastian is seen in slow motion. He is bashing himself against the wall, and falls to the ground.
SEBASTIAN:: Where will they have turned your smile to dust? In some filthy furnace? What stones do I need to turn to find your hands? Under what concrete block will I find your mind? Give me her back! She was mine. Give me her back! You won’t rest. Dictator! You’ve destroyed all our dreams. You won’t rest. Dictator! Give her back to me! She was mine!