Hellig krig
– feature ďŹ lm screenplay idea and pitch presenta4on author: Piotr Matecki Moelv, 22.07.2017
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„WAR”
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Term „WAR� for most of us referes to World War II as our family history, na4onal legacy and school topic...
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It is Vietnam war as sequence of icons of some period in culture...
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It is Iraqi war as modern controversial poli4cal and moral issue, USA statement on interna4onal arena, ash of ďŹ lms, books, ar4cles and everyday media streaming of pictures of war...
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It is terrorism as concerning all of us most...
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But WAR is entering our everyday life in completely new way...
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”How could a norwegian couple from Verdal and Levanger end up by joining ISIS in Syria?” - A>enposten, 27. November 2014
”Norwegian intelligence secret service suspect that young, norwegian woman has terror plans”
- APenposten, 19. February 2015
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” – He was like ”all others” , but he was not parLcularly fond of going to school.” - NRK, 27. November 2014 ” – I believe she had a need of belonging to some place.”
- NRK, 27. November 2014
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” In her message she says she feels her sins are redeemed and as if she was born again. Now she has a chance to do things right and do something important. - NRK, 27. November 2014
”His friends say that he is impulsive, but nice. He carries stuff for elderly people, supports friends and helps when necessary. THey say he gace 3000 crowns to one who needed it.”
- NRK, 8. October 2015
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”His childhood friends believe that teenager has convertet to islam to give his life more meaning” - NRK, 8. October 2015
”He says he wants to help thos who suffer under dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. What he had seen it on TV and in internet made a strong impression on him. Apart from that he does not feel he belongs to the norwegian society.”
- NRK, 8. October 2015
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Hellig krig – idea for screenplay of feature film
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LOGLINE Father is struggling to save his teenage son from the inuence of ekstremist muslim teacher and prevent his escape from Norway to Syria to join the jihadists guerilla.
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THE STORY
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ARNE, 17, son. Protagonist. Raised with tough love, seeks his way. Under the influence of his father and his teachings he sees the enemy in strangers – Muslim colleagues at school, black bus drivers, Pakistani fruit salesmen, Somali neighbor. Obeying his father’s will without opposing, he prepares for military school entry exams. His father’s goal is for Arne to become a professional military man. He, his soul, his salva4on, is a stake in the movie.
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TOM, 45, father. An Iraq war vet, special forces soldier suffering from PTSD and nightmares. He can’t find his place in the quiet reality of a small Norwegian town. LeP by his wife, he focuses on raising his son. He does it with a strong arm, passing onto his son his worldview, in which the good Norwegian soldiers fight with mythical evil forces represented by Islamic fighters. Tom experiences huge change in his world views, from arrogant feeling of power to embracing his own weakness in most relevant life issues.
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MULLAH ABDULLAH, 50. Antagonist. An influen4al figure in the local Muslim community. Personifica4on of stereotypes and fears of unknown culture, lifestyle, believes. Ekstremist on our own ground, poisoning minds and hearts of lost souls, young, weak men. An ac4ve recruiter, whose goal is to build state, driven by sharia laws.
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HANAN, 35, and SAYID, 17, mother and son who help to save Arne from inuence of radical, charisma4c mullah. Sayid is the one who ďŹ rst shares Arnes plans to go to Syria to become a warrior in ISIS. And then the one who struggles to keep him safe in Norway.
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At school Arne is gebng into ďŹ ghts with his immigrant colleagues.
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His aggression increases when he falls in love with a Muslim girl from school, AMIRA. But when she’s molested he surprisingly stands in her defense against his colleagues.
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He loses the respect of his friends. He gets beaten up, but gains Sayid’s, Amira’s brother gra4tude. The boys come closer and gradually Arne becomes a part of Sayid’s social group. Among muslims he finds respect, warmth and acceptance.
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Arne begins to lead a double life: in front of his father he pretends to be a hard islamophobe and at the same 4me he secretly bonds with Sayid. The boys begin to listen to the teachings of Mullah ABDULLAH, an influen4al figure in the local Muslim community. Sayid and Arne are gebng convinced to leave for Syria and take part in the “holy war”.
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Arne takes the military school exams. Another candidate’s unhelpful abtude causes Arne to fail the exams. He’s terrified. He’s afraid of his father’s wrath. He seeks revenge on the colleague, who made a fool out of him during the exams. A tragedy is averted aPer he talks to Mullah Abdullah, who advises him to use his anger for a higher cause, to “make it holy”.
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The conflict between Father and Teacher reaches a cri4cal phase. Terrified Tom searches for his son. He contacts Sayid’s mother, with whom he surprisingly finds common ground. Together, despite their mutual reluctance, they have one goal – to find their sons before something tragic happens.
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Sayid comes back home informing them, that they were both supposed to go to Syria to fight as par4sans, but he decided to turn back. He tried to convince Arne, but he was relentless. Arne already leP the country to join the “holy warriors”.
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CONFLICT Two representants of dierent cultures, Tom and Abdullah clash to gain the control over mind and heart of Arne. Tension between these two, their world views, their tac4cs – this is the axis of the story. 26
STAKE It is Arne himself. His salva4on. His life. His future. When staying in Norway he will enter adult life and a bunch of posi4ve life scenarios is wai4ng for him. Traveling to warzone he most probably will kill and be killed.
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CLIMAX Confronta4on between Father and Teacher is inevitable and Arne has to choose his own way. Strength, reason, patrio4sm, idealism, empathy – there comes a moment when all these terms turn into its opposi4ons and deconstruct itself for father and for son. Hungry for new challenges, full of idealism Arne reaches the point of no return...
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QUESTIONS, NOT ANSWERS This film is about crea4ng ques4ons, not giving answers. Finding right ques4ons is a half way to find answers. Looking for answers is a task for audience.
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QUESTIONS, NOT ANSWERS Where is enemy? There on baileďŹ eld? Or maybe here, very close? Maybe there is completely dierent war we need to win than the one we have in minds aPer watching media? Maybe ul4mate weapon is not F16, but insights, understanding, dialog, compassion, including abtude?
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CHALLENGING THE MYTHS Isn’t the whole mind set up around the war recrea4ng war, fueling it? Anger-fear, sacrifice-cowardness, love-hate, par4o4sm-ekstremism – aren’t these terms the two sides of the same coin, a forces that make the war cycle run and cover the real issues? What happened to our mythologies? Maybe it is void in this sphere which airacts young, weak, hungry souls to join the rebels?
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Myth of GOOD KNIGHT, which s4ll is a deep, crucial for our percep4on of war. Is it s4ll adequate to describe war? But if not, what can we do with our deep need of believing and following this myth in our lives?
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Myth of PURE EVIL. We already know it does not exist. We know that all sides of the conflicts has their reasons and issues. We know it is complicated. But we s4ll need to experience the myth in a simple, powerful way in films.
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Hellig krig has an ambi4on to challenge this need of recrea4ng myth, which is so common for all audiences. This story has an ambi4on to create different type of hero than Hollywood re-creates over and over again, lately in movies like Amercian sniper. Our hero will be different – will find strength in doubts, and in deconstruc4ng his role.
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NARRATIVE LANGUAGE / REFERENCE POINTS
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We intend to gain strength and clarity of created characters of this movie...
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Courage of showing void in genera4ons soul as captured in...
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Reference to socially relevant issues of this movie...
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Image of major forces, poli4cs and ideologies, determining life and fate of ordinary characters as presented in...
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PRODUCTION DESIGN SKETCH phase 1. Scriptwri4ng phase 2. JODA kommunikasjon and Jens Haugen Studio find a partner produc4on company with track record in feature film produc4on phase 3. Budget, schedule, development and produc4on policy will be established by these 3 partners. phase 4. Acquisi4on of film project will be directed to film produc4on suppor4ng organisa4ons, produc4on companies, distributors and investors from outside of the film branch (as investment opportunity).
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PEOPLE INVOLVED
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PEOPLE INVOLVED PIOTR MATECKI – author of an idea, scriptwriter, TV commercial producer with 16 years of experience in adver4sing communica4on. Former copywriter, crea4ve director and strateg in adver4sing agencies in Poland. See pornolio: www.vimeo.com/album/2996919
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PEOPLE INVOLVED PIOTR MATECKI – co-writer of a feature film script 11 solu-ons, about Smolensk air catastrophe of polish presiden4al plane in Russia. Not produced.
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PEOPLE INVOLVED PIOTR MATECKI – for over a year marke4ng manager in Norway, now communica4on advisor and cultural event producer (produced as coordinator Performance Art Fes4val for KUNSTBANKEN Hedmark – aiest in aiachment).
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PEOPLE INVOLVED PIOTR MATECKI – founder and leader of JODA kommunikasjon – PR and adver4sing agency focused on socially relevant communica4on - www.joda.space and www.krop.com/matecki
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PEOPLE INVOLVED JENS EDGAR HAUGEN – owner of photo and film post/produc4on JHStudio from Hamar. Inten4on leier in aiachment.
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GOALS Hellig krig has an ambi4on to become a mature ar4s4c drama, dealing with social issues relevant for European audience. Based on this it has also ambi4on to become commercially successful ďŹ lm project with cinema distribu4on on the Europe markets in coopera4on with leading distribu4on companies. World ďŹ lm fes4val par4cipa4on and long lifecycle in DVD and VOD distribu4on are also goals for Hellig krig.
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Thank you Piotr Matecki piotr@joda.space 911 70 178
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