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THE POWER OF ONE
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) There comes a time in everyone's life when they discover that the only person you can truly depend on is yourself. That the only real power anyone has to get anything done is the power of one. With any luck you can make it through a lot of years before you ever have to face the reality of that fact.
It was a luxury I never had. I discovered it the year my mother had her nervous breakdown.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) I was all of six.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) My father died before I was born, and even though I was raised by my Zulu nanny, with my mother, depending on her health, in nominal attendance, it was decided, with her departure, that I, too, would depart... ... for boarding school.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) But before I could be sent out into the world one very serious matter had to be dealt with. I was a chronic bedwetter. Since my nanny was the one responsible for my well-being, she did what any responsible Zulu mother would do. She called on the greatest medicine man of her tribe -- Inkosi Inkosikazi.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) Legend had it that Inkosi Inkosikazi was the last son of the great Zulu king, Dingaan, who fought both the Boers and the British to a standstill nearly 100 years before, and the night Inkosi Inkosikazi was conceived stars fell from the sky until the sun rose.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) The medicine man instructed me to jump off the falls and climb along the ten stepping stones, counting as I went until I reached dry land.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) Even though it was only a dream, I felt as if my struggle to reach dry land was terrifyingly real. The water was like ice, bonechilling, cold, and as I made my way from one stone to the next I could feel my strength desert me.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) I was three rocks in when I ran out of gas. I couldn't pull myself any further. No matter how hard I tried, the current tried harder. I felt myself going under for the last time.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) Inkosi Inkosikazi said the spirit of the great Zulu warriors lived in me. He told me that whenever trouble arose I should return to the waterfall and keep stepping across the rocks until the trouble passed. He said three rocks were enough to conquer my problem with the night water; that I was very brave. He said I was a man for all Africa, bound to her by my spirit, bound by my dreams. And he let me keep the chicken.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) Although I was bound by spirit and dream to Africa, I was bound by heritage and language to the birthplace of my grandparents -- England -- a country I had never seen, but one that was to cause me eminently more problems than bedwetting ever did.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) The school I was sent to was attended and staffed entirely by Afrikaaners, the oldest of the two white tribes of Africa.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) I spoke only English. The hated tongue. The language of the enemy who had usurped power and stolen the country through political chicanery and military brutality.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) During the Boer War of 1896, 26,000 Boer women and children were herded into detainment camps by the British, where they died like flies from dysentery, malaria and black water fever. And it seemed I was destined to shoulder the responsibility for each and every one of those deaths.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) And no one made this more evident to me than Jaapie Botha, a wheat farmer's son from the Transvaal.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) The only time I was at peace was when I slept. Inkosi Inkosikazi's chicken proved to be, like his previous owner, a salvation.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) During the day he would live outside the dorm, happily scarfing down bugs and grubs, secure in a little house I built for him.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) And at night he would hop through the window and, perching over my bed, squawking if any intruders came near.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) He was my best and only friend.
YOUNG MAN (V.O.) I'm sure in time a status quo would have been achieved between me and my schoolmates were it not for the cataclysmic events occurring in that faraway place none of us had ever seen. Two montjhs after I arrived at the school World War II broke out in Europe. Hitler had vowed to crush the British Empire. The Boers sharpened their swords in anticipation.
JAAPIE God has sent Hitler to deliver us from the English bastards who stole our country and killed our people. Heil Hitler!
ALL Heil Hitler!
JAAPIE We will swear a blood oath. When Hitler comes we'll rise up and kill the Verdomde Rooineks.
ALL A blood oath! A blood oath!
JAAPIE With your blood.
JAAPIE We swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Heil Hitler!
ALL We swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Heil Hitler!
JAAPIE Death to all Englishmen in South Africa. Heil Hitler!
JAAPIE God bless the fatherland. Heil Hitler!
ALL Heil Hitler!
JAAPIE See what we have in store for you when Hitler comes, Rooinek. Hoy!
BOY No!
JAAPIE For crimes committed against the whole Boer people. I, Jaapie Botha, the judge and Uberfuhrer, sentence you and your Rooin다 kaffir chicken to death. Heil Hiter.!
ALL Heil Hitler!
ALL Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!
BOY No!
JAAPIE Heil Hitler!
ALL Heil Hitler!
JAAPIE Hang him up!
BOYS Jaapie! No!
JAAPIE Hang him!
JAAPIE You will pay for the deaths of our grandfathers and grandmothers, our aunts and uncles. All Rooineks will pay and you will be first. Pull!
JAAPIE In the name of Adolf Hitler and the fatherland, I sentence you to die, Verdomde Rooinek.
BOYS Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!
STAFF MEMBER What's this?
PK I came to after being unconscious for two days, the rock missing my eye by half an inch. After a week in hospital it was decided I'd be sent to my grandfather's house in the English town of Barberton, at least until passions at school cooled. Jaapie Botha was expelled; sent home to his family's farm in disgrace. And so the first recorded South African casualty of Hitler's insanity was not a Boer, nor a Rooinek, but a tatter-feathered, half-bald kaffir chicken.
ST. JOHN Very evocative, yes. Particularly the image of the chicken. Good choice there.
ST. JOHN Any ideology that needs to attack the thing that least threatens it is an ideology that will not outlive its own generation. Inclusion, gentlemen, not exclusion, is the key to survival. Something our new government should take heed of, eh?
ST. JOHN Next week we have Mr. Levy who will enlighten us on... MORRIE, a bright-eyed kinetic, speaks up.
MORRIE Sport and wager in Imperial Rome, sir.
ST. JOHN Very apt, Mr. Levy. We look forward to the experience. All right.
ST. JOHN PK
ST. JOHN Well-written.
PK Thank you, sir.
ST. JOHN I've received notice from the Oxford selection committee. You are to appear before them in three weeks. I assume you'll be reading a piece of your fiction as your presentational.
PK Yes, sir.
ST. JOHN A word of caution. Contemporary to most of these fellows means the seventeenth century. Try and keep your theme, um, classical, if you know what I mean.
PK Yes sir. I will. Will the scholarship be decided at the same time, sir?
ST. JOHN Money's a different matter. Different committee.
PK Very good, sir.
ST. JOHN And P.K…
ST. JOHN Good luck tonight.
PK Thank you, sir.
PK How we doing?
MORRIE You win and your dream comes true. You lose, we're back to bread and butter sandwiches till term's end. What'd he want?
PK My appointement before the Oxford committee came through.
MORRIE A snap.
PK For a brain like you, maybe.
MORRIE Come on, you'll read one of your pieces, they'll be begging you to attend.
PK But will they pay for the privilege?
MORRIE Well let's bloody hope so. It'll be a lonely time without you there.
PK Morrie Levy. Is that the voice of sentimentality I hear coming from you?
MORRIE Sentimentality my ass. Practicality. Where am I going to find a sure thing like you to make book on at bloody Oxford?
PK Go on.
MORRIE You hear Sutcliffe screwed Bartlett's sister when he stayed with them over holidays?
PK I don't believe it.
MORRIE I heard it from Bartlett's own lips. He's selling reservations for next holiday. A pound for one night; three pounds for four.
PK You register?
MORRIE For both of us. Took the whole holiday.
MORRIE You nervous?
PK No.
MORRIE Christ! I'm about to have a calf. This bloody Boer gets lucky, we're in the poorhouse.
MORRIE Now remember. We're not here to exhibit our wares. We go in, we do the job, we get out. Right?
PK Right.
ANNOUNCER And at the end of six matches in all weight divisions, the score is Prince of Wales three victories, Helpmakeer three victories.
ANNOUNCER And now for the final bout to determine which school will win the Johannesburg 1950 public school boxing team championship. In this corner, weighing 140 pounds, standing 5'8", from the Helpmakeer School with a record of 13-0 on the year, Jannie Geildenhaus.
ANNOUNCER And in this corner, representing the Prince of Wales School, the current Johannesburg Public School welterweight champion, also with a record of 13-0 on the year, also 140 pounds, Kid P.K.
ANNOUNCER We thank the native population for their spirited display of enthusiasm. But now, on to the main event. Fighters to center ring, please.
REFEREE You both know the rules. No butts, no elbows, no low blows. First man to score three knock downs wins. Let's have a good clean fight. Good luck to you.
PK First row, third from the left. Find out who she is.
MORRIE We're in a bloody war here, in case you forgot. Let's keep our mind on that, hey?
JANNIE Blery Rooinek. I'll kill you.
MORRIE Get up! Get up!
MORRIE Up! Up!
REFEREE Okay. Fight.
MORRIE What are you trying to do, bankrupt us? What happened?
MORRIE Christ! If they get caught in here they're dead. What the hell's going on?
PK I don't know.
MORRIE Well, worry about it later. In case you haven't noticed, this Boer bastard is trying to kill you.
PK You see the way he drops his left when he throws the right?
MORRIE Yeah?
MORRIE Thank you, God.
MORRIE Here you go, pal.
PK You're the treasurer of this company. You hold it. Did you find out what I asked for?
MORRIE Uh, listen, P.K. You know in this world there is no greater proponent of sins of the flesh than Morrie Levy. But do yourself a favor on this one. Take my advice. Pass.
PK Thanks for the advice. The information please.
MORRIE Do you know who her father is? Professor Daniel Marais.
PK So?
MORRIE So? He's the Nationalist Party's resident intellectual. The man is one of the architects of this damned system of -- what are they calling it? -- apartheid? He has about as much use for a Rooinek Englishman rutting after his daughter as the Queen does for balls, pardon my French.
PK What's her name and where do I find her?
MORRIE Maria Elizabete Marais, Seniors Cottage, Room 22, Devilliers School. They don't call it 'Fortress Virgin' for nothing. You'll never get in.
PK You going to take book on that?
MORRIE Already have. Three-to-one says you don't.
PK Where'd you bet?
MORRIE I took a big position you do.
MORRIE In case you have to bail yourself out.
GIRL Those are always cold. Use this one.
PK May I come in?
PK I'm sorry to scare you.
MARIA You can't be here.
PK I didn't know how else to meet you.
MARIA I could be expelled.
PK Girls don't usually come to boxing matches.
MARIA We went on a dare. Please.
PK Did you like it?
MARIA It was... ... exciting. You were very good.
PK Thank you. I'm glad I impressed you.
MARIA You speak the Taal.
PK I'll speak Zulu if it'll help me see you again.
MARIA I can't.
PK Why not?
MARIA I need my father's permission.
PK Is it hard to get?
MARIA Hard for an Afrikaaner boy. Impossible for an English one.
PK How about your permission? Do I have that?
GIRL #1 We're having coffee upstairs. Want to come?
MARIA I have to finish this paper.
GIRL #2 Come when you're finished. We'll be up late.
MARIA Please go.
PK You didn't answer my question.
MARIA There are plenty of English girls. What makes me so important?
PK The way I felt when I saw you.
MARIA My father will insist on meeting you.
PK I can't wait.
MATRON (V.O.) Lights out, ladies.
MARIA Now please.
PK Good night, Maria Marais.
MARIA Good night, PK.
PK I don't remember telling you my name.
MARIA And I don't remember telling you mine.
MARAIS Jan Piet Marais. My uncle. At 22 he led a kommando for three years before your people caught him and hung him.
PK My people?
MARAIS The English.
PK I consider myself an African, sir.
MARAIS As do I. As do the Zulu, the Xhosa, the Pongo, the Ndebele. We're all Africans. But all from separate tribes, ay?
PK Unfortunately.
MARAIS Why do you say that?
PK Because it's the whole tribal idea that creates our problems here in South Africa.
MARAIS The problems of South Africa, my boy, do not come from tribalism. They come from counter-tribalism. From people insisting that natural laws which have been in place and operating since God's creation, should be tampered with. Does the gazelle sleep with the lion? Does the rhino graze with the mouse? The separation of things is not coincidental. Do you think a Zulu wants to see his culture, his sense of identity, replaced by someone else's anymore than I do?
PK No, sir. But I don't think he wants being a Zulu to mean he is denied the same rights as everyone else has.
MARAIS Which is why civilization is defined by the ability to live under the rule of law. Laws define rights.
PK But do they define justice?
MARAIS Ah. Justice. The banner behind which the English marched as they gobbled up a quarter of the world? Justice, my boy, is only relative to who's in charge.
PK And how long they stay in charge is only relative to how well they dispense that justice... ... with all due respect.
MARIA Papa, would you like coffee in the library or the parlor?
MARAIS The library, mein leib.
MARAIS I can't figure out if you're brave or foolish.
PK Why is that, sir?
MARAIS You come here to ask for permission to see my daughter. Correct?
PK Yes, sir.
MARAIS And knowing who I am, what I stand for, do you think this sort of discussion is going to put that request in a favorable light?
PK I thought a man of your intellectual reputation wouldn't want his daughter seeing someone who didn't think.
MARAIS Let me give you some advice then. You're right. I admire a keen mind. But intellectual reputation or not, I am first a Marais, a member of the Volk.
MARAIS (CONT'D) And if you're trying to impress a member of the Volk with your intellect, don't do it espousing liberal ideas picked up in an English private school.
PK These ideas I picked up somewhere else.
MARAIS No doubt from an expert on race relations.
PK Actually, sir, from an expert on cactus.
DOC (FIGURE) Ja. Perfect. You will excuse me, please.
DOC This I do not normally without permission do, ja? But to catch the expression. After all, it is the expression that is important. Ja? Without the expression the human being is just a lump of meat. You have some problems, I think. I am Professor Karl von Vollensteen.
PK I'm P.K.
DOC Such a young person with such an old expression. I think we can be friends. Ja?
PK (V.O.) That was how I met Doc, as he insisted I call him. A chance meeting between a directionless seven-year-old boy and an old German professor out collecting cacti on the African bush veldt. So began my education.
PK (V.O.) Doc believed the brain had two functions and that the South African public school system unfortunately dealt with only one.
DOC The brain, P.K., has two functions. It is the best reference library ever, which is a good thing to have. Ja? But also from it comes original thought. In school you will get all filled up with the facts. Here your brain will learn where to look, how to look, how to think. And then you will have for yourself all the brains that have ever been.
PK (V.O.) Doc knew everything. He had a love of learning. But his real passion was centered around two things -- music and cacti.
PK (V.O.) Until he was fifty, Doc had a successful career as a concert pianist all over Europe. On his fiftieth birthday he gave it all up and moved to South Africa. From that point on it was all cactus.
PK (V.O.) Every specimen Doc found would be carefully photographed and catalogued.
DOC If God would choose a plant to represent Him, I think He would choose of all plants the cactus. This one plant has all the blessings He tried but failed to give man. It is true. Look. The cactus is humble but not submissive. It grows where no other plant will grow. The sun bakes its back, the wind rips it from cliffs, or drowns it in the dry desert sand. Not a complaint. In good times or bad it will still flower. It protects itself from danger.
DOC But it harms no other plant. It has patience and solitude and modesty. In Mexico there is a cactus that blooms once in a hundred years and then only at night. That is saintliness of the highest order I think. Ja? From cactus comes medicine to heal the wounds of men and little buttons if you eat one you can touch the face of God or stare into the mouth of hell. It is the plant of patience, solitude, love, and madness. Modesty, beauty. Toughness and gentleness. Of all the plants I think it is closest to God. Ja?
PK (V.O.) Doc was a hard man to disagree with. So when he decided I must spend as much time with him to remedy the flaw in my educational environment I didn't argue.
PK (V.O.) Appealing to my grandfather's stoic belief in the primacy of European culture in all its forms, Doc offered to instruct me in piano in return for my helping him locate and gather his precious cacti.
PK (V.O.) As a student of music I was never more than adequate, something I suspect Doc knew from the start. It is the love of music that is most important, he would tell me, and I would believe him.
DOC Everything fits, P.K. Nothing is unexplained. Nature is one big chain reaction. Everything depends on everything else. From the smallest to the biggest. Always in life an idea starts small like a tree.
DOC This tree can grow so high it can touch the face of the sky. But this little vine can choke it and keep it small. Most people are like these vines. Afraid of new ideas. Afraid to let things grow.
DOC Always listen to yourself. Follow your own idea. If you are wrong, so what? You learn something. And with learning you grow stronger. And if you are right at the beginning? An even bigger bonus.
PK (V.O.) I roamed the kloofs and ridges, the dry riverbeds and jungle floors with Doc for over a year, learning more than I realize even today. I also played a lot more 'God Save the King' due to my new musical celebrity.
PK (V.O.) Barberton was a very proper English town with a proper square, a wide main street, and the colonials' overblown patriotism for a homeland most people had never seen, hanging in the air like fine dust. Not quite seen, but there nonetheless.
PK (V.O.) The only Afrikaaners to live in Barberton were sent there to work at the government prison, just outside town. Germany had covertly supported the Boers in their two unsuccessful wars against British rule, supplying food and medical supplies as well as ample stocks of ammunition.
PK (V.O.)(CONT'D) Germany was an old friend, a trusted friend. And in a country where a handshake is a friendship and a friendship a bond for life, as the war in Europe grew fiercer tensions in Barberton heated up. Suspicion was afoot. Spies were everywhere.
DOC Grammar: satisfactory. Science: satisfactory. Mathetmatics: satisfactory.
DOC P.K., if there is one thing I know you to be that is a lot more than just satisfactory. Ja?
PK But I don't want to be known as a brain.
DOC Why not?
PK Who do you think gets beaten up on all the time in school?
DOC My boy, to be smart is not a sin. But to be smart and not use it, that is sin number one. And as for getting beat up on, use your brain to figure out how not to be.
DOC Again it begins. The stupidity. Do not be frightened.
BRITISH OFFICER (V.O.) Karl von Vollensteen, for the failure to register as an alien during times of war in accordance with His Majesty's government orders to do so, you are hereby sentenced to be confined at Barberton prison for the duration of the war with Germany.
PK (V.O.) And again I was alone with nothing to depend on to see me through except the power of one.
MORRIE Look, even if the scholarship doesn't come through, my old man said he'd lend you the money.
PK Morrie.
MORRIE All right. All right. We'll call it the 'Levy Carpet Emporium Scholarship for Poor but Proud Christian Gentlemen.' How's that?
PK Tell your father I appreciate the offer.
MORRIE God, I hate people who can't be bought.
PK Why is that?
MORRIE I don't know. Personality disorder.
PK Undoubtedly.
MORRIE How do they get away with this?
PK There he is.
MORRIE Christ, he's old.
PK And he's the best. C'mon.
SOLLY (OLD MAN) No, no. God gave you two hands so you can knock a man out from either side. Left-right.
PK Mr. Goldman?
SOLLY What? You boys lost?
PK I'm the one who called you yesterday. From the Prince of Wales School?
SOLLY Oh yeah, yeah. The champeen. Right?
PK Right.
SOLLY And who are you?
MORRIE The champeen's manager.
SOLLY Oy gevalt. You know you train here it's not like those nice school fights you're used to. Three knockdowns you win.
MORRIE What does it cost for you to train him?
SOLLY For my personal attentinons, Mr. Manager? Fifty pounds a month. For one of them... ... less.
MORRIE Here's for six months in advance. Three hundred pounds.
SOLLY Six months? I don't know your boy'll last six minutes.
PK I'll last.
SOLLY What are you staring? Punch, don't stare. C'mon. Work or you're out.
SOLLY That your gear?
PK Yes, sir.
SOLLY Go change in the back. We'll see if you couldn't find a better use for all that money.
PK Thank you, sir.
SOLLY Why's he want to do this, a nicelooking schoolboy?
MORRIE He wants to be welterweight champ of the world.
SOLLY Oh sure, sure. And I'd like to be twenty-five again.
MORRIE You like to make book on it?
SOLLY You giving odds?
MORRIE You name them.
SOLLY You both meshugah.
SOLLY Let's just start out nice and easy now.
SOLLY Never I seen someone so young throw an eight-punch combination. Where did you learn such a thing?
PK In prison, sir.
SOLLY You trying to be a comedian and a boxer? Mr. Manager, come to my office. We'll talk terms. You, get showered, and see me after. We'll talk training.
VON ZYL (KOMMANDANT) So you are PK.
PK Yes, sir.
VON ZYL I am Kommandant Von Zyl. The professor has requested you to be his visitor so you can continue your studies on piano and he can continue with his studies on cactus. This is the first specimen?
PK Yes, sir. Kalanchoe Thrysiflora.
VON ZYL The professor taught you this, ja? Of course to your English town he is a prisoner, a criminal. To us who respect such learning and culture, he is an honored guest.
VON ZYL This pass is good for any time, any day. Would you like to see him now?
PK Yes, sir.
VON ZYL Come. I will take you myself.
VON ZYL We have cleared a little plot behind the cellblock for the cactus. And tomorrow we have the professor's piano moved here. There is not another instrument like it in the territory. Maybe one day the two of you can give a concert for us, hey?
PK Yes, sir.
VON ZYL You like to box?
PK I would like to learn, meneer. Are the boys prisoners?
VON ZYL No, no. The sons of the guards. See that one there? That's my son, Danie. It's a club. Lieutenant Smit.
SMIT Sir?
VON ZYL We have room for one more on the squad?
SMIT He's a little small, Kommandant.
VON ZYL We'll build him up then.
SMIT Yes, sir. But I really don't have anyone to spare to teach him right now. You know, with the tournament coming up.
VON ZYL There must be someone.
SMIT Piet.
GEEL PIET (BLACK MAN) Yes, sir.
SMIT You teach this boy basics, and you teach him good or I knock your black head flat, you hear?
GEEL PIET I teach him best I know, baas.
SMIT We train every day. First thing in the morning. Miss two trainings, you're gone.
PK Yes, meneer.
SMIT Come tomorrow. See this old kaffir.
PK Yes, meneer. Thank you, meneer.
VON ZYL Lieutenant, a word?
GEEL PIET Don't worry, little baas. Little can beat big any day. First with the head, then with the heart. Little defeat big when little is smart. You can remember that?
PK Yes, sir.
GEEL PIET No, no. Don't never call me sir. 'Specially in front of the guards.
PK What should I call you?
GEEL PIET Piet. Geel Piet.
COACH Kaffir. Towels.
GEEL PIET Okay, baas. Coming, baas.
MARIA You took a big chance talking to my father the way you did.
PK Not really. Going in I was behind on points with him. I'm English. I attend a politically suspect school. I'm a boxer.
MARIA He likes boxers.
PK All men like boxers. But not for their daughters. So I had to find some way to make an impression.
MARIA You could have picked a more agreeable topic.
PK And made much less of an impression. Talk to someone about their passion. Even if they disagree they'll remember you. It was really the most logical strategy if you think about it.
MARIA Do you spend hours thinking about how to deal with me, too?
PK Days.
MARIA Know what I think? You're dangerous.
MARIA When I was little we would go to my grandfather's farm in the high veldt for holiday.
MARIA My father would take me to the top of the highest hill and we'd play this game, 'What Do You See' until we ran out of things to see. Do you ever play that?
PK No.
MARIA Want to try?
PK Sure.
MARIA I see a forest. It goes on forever. There are giant trees which keep getting bigger and bigger over thousands of years. Now you.
PK I see little trees growing on the forest floor, learning to grow with the little bit of light the big trees let in. Now you.
MARIA I see the big trees getting bigger, their leaves and branches making one great green umbrella over all of Africa.
PK I see the sun growing weaker, giving off less light. I see the big trees dying because they cannot live without a lot of light. I see the little trees take over the forest because they learn to adapt.
MARIA You tell a very good story.
GEEL PIET (V.O.) Can't hit you, can't hurt you. Can't hit you, can't hurt you. Can't hit you, can't hurt you. That's it. Good. Good.
GEEL PIET You wear out this old man. See? See how it can work? How little beat big?
PK Yes, sir. But when do I get to punch?
GEEL PIET You not going to just punch, man. You going to combination.
GEEL PIET One-two. One-two. C'mon. Now you. One-two. One-two.
GEEL PIET Oh do we have a boxer here. Yes sir. We build you to eight-punch combination. The Geel Piet eight. Then you catch afire. One-two. One-two.
DOC How is the next Joe Louis this morning?
PK Try and hit me.
PK No. C'mon.
PK No. Try hard.
DOC You are amazing.
PK And I'm going to learn the Geel Piet eight.
DOC Yes, yes, yes. But right now you have to come learn the Beethoven Fifth for one hour so we can get to the cactus before it's too hot to plant. Did you bring her?
PK Parchypodium Namquanium.
DOC Excellent. Excellent. We make from you a champion and a brain.
GEEL PIET Excuse me, big baas. But can I talk to the small baas?
DOC Of course.
GEEL PIET Every day I see you bring the bucket and in the bottom is some tobacco leaf.
PK It keeps the roots wet.
GEEL PIET What happens to the leaf after?
DOC A little I use in some water to make a bug spray for the plants.
PK And the rest we throw away.
GEEL PIET If you leave the pail when you go plant is a problem, small baas?
PK I don't understand.
GEEL PIET Is like this. You see how hard the life is for the people here in prison. Only little pleasure they take from this hard life maybe sometimes when no one watching late at night -- a little smoke. Now with the big war in Europe tobacco is plenty hard to get outside. Inside it is gone. We are the forgotten in here.
PK We have bunches of leaves at home. I'll bring a whole bucketful tomorrow.
GEEL PIET No, no. Mustn't do that, little baas.
PK I don't understand.
DOC What Geel Piet means is it can be dangerous. Something the guards might not want the people to have.
PK What's wrong with tobacco? Why wouldn't they want them to have it?
DOC What's wrong is people whose job it is to punish. After a little while it is all they know how to do.
PK What should I do?
DOC This is for you to answer.
BORMANN I smell something not right here, ay, kaffir?
GEEL PIET No, meneer sergeant. Everything okay here.
BORMANN I don't fuckin' believe you.
BORMANN If you're up to something I'll find out.
DOC Schweinhund.
GEEL PIET No, no. This old kaffir's okay. Sorry to make any trouble, little baas. We just stick to the boxing now on. Sorry, sorry.
PK Geel Piet.
PK I leave my bucket on the side by Doc's toilet when I practice piano.
DOC PK, to me you are the champion of the world already. Come. Let us go box now with Mr. Beethoven.
SOLLY Now at the end of the Geel Piet eight you do this... one-two... One-two-three... the Solly Goldman thirteen. Okay?
SOLLY That's it. That's it. Move him around. Jab jab. Slip slip. Now.
SOLLY And... one-two... one-two-three.
SOLLY That's it. That's it. Now work around the defense. Jab jab.
MORRIE How do you get away with this, Mr. G? Why don't they close you down? I mean, there are laws about blacks and white boxing each other.
SOLLY In a public match. Not in a gym. Not yet anyway. The Boer is a funny people. Outside the ring the black is not equal. Inside he is. But only in private, not in public. So I keep my mouth shut, the police go a little blind, and that's that. It's a crazy world, huh?
SOLLY Work him on the heavy bag.
MORRIE Six, seven, eight, nine, ten. That's it.
ASSISTANT Solly wants to see you two.
MORRIE You wanted to see us, Mr. G.?
SOLLY Close the door. Someone I got a lot of respect for asked me to make a request. He wants to put you in a match.
MORRIE With who?
SOLLY A young guy just turned pro. Gideon Mandoma.
MORRIE A black fighter! They want him to fight a black fighter?
SOLLY In a black township. Sofiatown.
MORRIE Out of the question. Not even up for discussion. C'mon, P.K.
PK Who asked you to ask?
SOLLY The man who promotes all the fights in Sofiatown – Elias Nguni.
PK And you trust him?
SOLLY In thirty years I know him, number one on the list.
MORRIE You're both out of your minds.
PK Did he tell you why he wants the match?
SOLLY I told you what he told me.
PK Just talking boxing -- how do I match up with Mandoma?
SOLLY Pretty even.
MORRIE I mean besides getting thrown out of school and into jail, do you know what else happens you do this? He's a pro. The minute you fight him you're a pro.
SOLLY There's no purse being offered.
MORRIE That's a good career move. Risk everything to gain nothing. Very sound business sense.
PK Tell Mr. Nguni I'll think about it.
MORRIE Okay. What's going on?
PK I don't know.
MORRIE Well why don't you tell me what you do know.
PK There's an African myth about an outsider who comes one day and unites all the tribes into one against their oppressors. They call it the myth of Onoshobishobi Ingelosi -- the tadpole angel. That chanting at the school championships?
MORRIE For you?
PK I haven't heard it in years. PK begins to disrobe.
MORRIE And how did this honor fall on your broad back?
PK I told you about bringing tobacco to the prisoners at Barberton? Well after that was going for a while I learned that even though they could send and receive letters, they never did. They couldn't read or write.
MORRIE So you did it for them.
PK Right.
MORRIE And after that?
PK A clothing program for their families and a food program. One thing sort of led to another.
MORRIE I can see where 'angel' would be an appropriate title. But it was, uh, this Geel Piet who was really behind all of it, wasn't it?
PK He was very good at pointing things out.
MORRIE Man like that should be running a country, not rotting in prison.
PK He's not in prison anymore. He's dead.
MARIA I thought I'd surprise you.
PK Well, you succeeded.
MARIA Mr. Goldman was explaining the theory behind the left hook.
MORRIE Beats talking about the weather. You may have heard about me? I'm Morrie.
MARIA Oh yes. How d'you do.
SOLLY Well, nice meeting you, Maria.
MARIA Nice meeting you, Mr. Goldman.
SOLLY We never had a girl come to the gym. It's not such a bad thing, huh?
PK You got a pass to come out on a weeknight?
MARIA Your tree pass.
MARIA Do you box too, Morrie?
MORRIE Do I look that daft?
PK Morrie's the brains of the operation.
MORRIE He means the bank. Your boyfriend has a great head for literature but none for finance.
PK I see you, Nguni.
NGUNI I see you, P.K.
NGUNI You have heard my request?
PK Yes. Why do you make it?
NGUNI A woman has thrown the sacred ox bones. She has made a fire and read the smoke.
PK What did she read?
NGUNI That the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi who is a chief must fight the one who one day will be a chief.
PK But it's not true that I'm a chief.
NGUNI Who knows what is true and what is not. The legend of Onoshobishobi Ingelosi is very powerful among the people. They see you box the Boer and always you win. They have heard the stories from Barberton. The people live with little hope. They must see if the spirit of the boy still lives in the man.
PK And if I lose? If the spirit of the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi does not exist in me anymore, then what will they live with?
NGUNI Less hope. But still they must see. It is our way.
POLICE #1 What's this here?
PK An old family servant, Officer. From home. We just ran into each other.
POLICE #2 Papers, man. Come on, be quick.
POLICE #1 Where you coming from?
PK Gym, sir. I train there.
POLICE #1 And you?
MORRIE I'm his manager.
POLICE #2 And you're the sparring partner, hey?
POLICE #2 You have an hour to curfew and a long way to go, kaffir. Be off.
NGUNI Yes, baas. Going right now.
PK Nguni.
PK I'll do it.
MARIA I'm scared for you, PK.
PK Solly's a great teacher. He wouldn't put me in a fight I couldn't handle.
MARIE I mean about how involved you are with the black people. That scares me.
PK Because you don't understand them.
MARIA No I don't.
PK If you did you wouldn't be so scared. You ever have a conversation with a black person?
MARIA Of course.
PK Besides a servant.
PK You should sometime.
MARIA I hate it when you tease me.
PK Sorry.
MARIA No you're not.
PK Yes I am.
MARIA I better go.
LEWIS According to your submission you have ambitions to be a writer and the welterweight boxing champion of the world.
PK Yes, sir.
LEWIS Don't you find seeking a career as a pugilist and reading for a degree at Oxford a bit, how shall we put it, intellectually incompatible.
PK Lord Byron was a boxer, sir. And I've never heard anyone question his intellectual integrity.
LEWIS I do not recall Lord Byron actually engaging in matches for money.
PK Actually, sir, there are several recorded instances of Lord Byron engaging in matches for quite large sums of money.
EXAMINER #2 Quite right. Yes. In a letter to his wife Shelley makes mention of just such a thing. For hundreds of pounds, actually. Lewis has heard enough.
LEWIS Let's move along, shall we? As your presentational you've requested to read from a work of your own fiction.
PK Yes, sir.
LEWIS Well, then, let us hope we'll be treated to the stirrings of another Byron.
PK The Concerto for the Southland and the Death of Geel Piet. His name was Geel Piet – yellow Peter. He was a mix of half the blood in Africa -- Dutch, Portuguese, Zulu, Sotha, and who knew what else. His father deserted his mother before he was born. His stepfather threw him out to survive on the streets of Capetown when he was nine.
PK (V.O.) When I met him he had spent forty of his fifty-five years in one South African prison or another. He was a thief, a con man, a black marketeer.
PK (V.O.) He may even have killed a man or two in his time. But despite all that he was one of the kindest, wisest, most self-effacing persons I ever knew. He was my teacher; he was my friend.
PK (V.O.) Geel Piet bore no animosity, held no hate. Should a guard beat him he regarded it as self-inflicted, the result of some carelessness on his part. To survive the system he lived in he became an expert in the art of camouflage, a master of the invisible. In this he strove to be perfect, and in the end it was his quest for perfection that provoked anger from above and killed him.
PK You know every time they do that I want to jump up and say I'm just a twelve-year-old. I'm not anything else.
GEEL PIET To them you are. You are the one who brings the smoke, the one who writes the letters, the one who puts clothes on their children when they are cold. You are Onoshobishobi Ingelosi.
PK But you know that's not true.
GEEL PIET Who is to say what is true and what is not true, kleine baas.
DOC The Allied armies have crossed the Rhine into Germany. It is almost over.
PK That's great, isn't it?
GEEL PIET Yes, kleine baas.
DOC You are a good faker, Geel Piet. but you don't think it's great at all. It means you lose your star letter writer and tobacco importer.
GEEL PIET No matter that, Professor. We always manage here. What pains me most is I lose my boxer.
PK I'll come back.
GEEL PIET No, kleine baas. You leave this damn place you don't come back never.
DOC Geel Piet, when a painter finishes a work of art he doesn't lose it. He sends it out in the world so everyone can see the genius of his creation. This is what you are going to do. And to celebrate the launch of such a work of art as you have made our boxer here, I have composed an entire concerto-- 'The Concerto for the Southland'-- which it is my intention toplay in concert for the prisonersbefore I leave.
GEEL PIET Not possible. The commandant never allow the people to have such a thing.
DOC He'll think it's a concert for him and the brass. But we'll know, ay? And the people will know.
PK He'll never let black be with white here, Doc.
DOC If the black is part of the orchestra, like the piano, he will.
GEEL PIET But the people have no instruments in this place, big baas.
DOC They have their voices. Each tribe a different voice, a different language -- all singing together. It is brilliant, no?
PK Except the tribes don't trust each other. They don't even talk to each other.
DOC Oh. This is correct. This stupid hatred.
GEEL PIET They will do it for you, kleine baas. You are Onoshobishobi Ingelosi. You bring the tobacco. You write the letters. You put clothes on their children's bodies and food in their bellies. All you do is ask and they all sing for you.
DOC He's right. Wunderbar. You are the smartest of us all.
BORMANN A kaffir smarter than all of us? You are a strange German, Professor.
DOC That little maniac with the moustache in Berlin you admire. He is the strange German. And soon kaput, I hope.
BORMANN If that's true you'll not be long for this place, eh, Professor?
DOC No, Sergeant. God willing.
BORMANN And you, too, little Rooinek. But you, kaffir, Hitler comes or goes...
BORMANN You are going to stay with me.
BORMANN And I will find out all your secrets once your friends are gone. One slip...
BORMANN I have you.
BORMANN Get out of here.
BORMANN You see, Professor, they are not like us. A white man would scream bloody murder.
PK (V.O.) As the weeks went by and the date for the concert grew closer, my life was a whirlwind.
PK (V.O.) Having obtained the cooperation of all the tribal groups, we set about instructing them. Four men from each tribe were taught the intricacies of their group's parts. They were the choral leaders responsible for teaching the others.
PK (V.O.) At night the prison hummed with the men in their cells practicing.
P.K. (V.O.) My boxing instruction accelerated as well. It was as if Geel Piet was trying to give me every bit of boxing knowledge he had before we parted. And always from the corners and shadows Bormann watched and waited.
PK (V.O.) Our boxing squad, the Barberton Blues, won the State Championship with a perfect record. I won at 100 lbs. It was my first championship. It made me want more.
PK (V.O.) Finally the night of the concert arrived. The prison atmosphere, normally tense, was keening. Each prisoner entering the yard is searched. It was prison policy to keep tribal rivalries boiling. Divide and conquer. The policy of control.
PK (V.O.) (CONT'D) This was to be the first time in the history of the South African prison system that the tribes were allowed to mingle. And if trouble came, it would be the last.
DOC Have you seen my page turner?
PK No.
He asks a prisoner in Zulu.
PK Have you seen Geel Piet?
DOC He will come.
VON ZYL Where is Bormann? I need Bormann to translate to the prisoners.
SMIT I don't know, Kommandant.
DOC Is there a problem here, Kommandant?
VON ZYL I want to address these filthy kaffirs but I don't have a translator.
PK I'll translate.
VON ZYL You can speak Zulu, PK?
PK Yes, sir.
VON ZYL All right. Listen up.
VON ZYL Tell them this concert is the gift to them from the professor who, even though he is in prison, is not a dirty criminal like them but a man of culture and learning.
PK The Kommandant welcomes you and looks forward to the great singing.
VON ZYL For such a man I am happy to do this. But one hair of trouble and it's finish.
PK He hopes each tribe will sing its best and bring honor to its people.
VON ZYL One wrong move and you get marched back to your cells and don't come out for a month.
PK He says tonight let us be one people under the African sky.
VON ZYL You did a good job.
PK Thank you, sir.
VON ZYL Professor?
PK No!
PK (V.O.) Geel Piet died of massive internal hemorrhage, the result of Bormann's ramming a truncheon up into the little man's body until his entrails spilled out. When I reached him he was already dead. I sat there crying, stroking his head and crying with African voices rising to heaven above, even as her blood soaked the ground below.
LEWIS Thank you very much. You will be notified as to the University's decision by mail.
LEWIS Point of curiousity.
LEWIS Your headmaster told me your work is somewhat autobiographical.
PK Yes, sir.
LEWIS This Bormann, he was real?
PK Yes, sir.
LEWIS Was justice ever served?
PK Yes, sir. Sergeant Bormann died of cancer... of the rectum.
PK We have to make a stop first.
SOLLY The night won't last forever, boychick.
PK It'll only take a minute.
SOLLY The night I escaped from the Tsar's Army it was just like this. Six of us -- four Jews, two Ukranians. Dark as anything. No streets. In the day we hid inbushes. At night we went.
MORRIE You deserted?
SOLLY Whey they come take you at thirteen years old and tell you it's twenty-five years in the Army, it's your duty to desert.
SOLLY You said the end of the road.
NGUNI Yes, yes. Sorry. I drive.
NGUNI Welcome, miss, welcome.
MARIA Thank you.
VOICES Onoshobishobi Ingelosi.
NGUNI The people have come from everywhere to see you.
MORRIE Where are the men?
NGUNI They are to be witness.
NGUNI No worry, miss. It is the sound of happiness.
NGUNI We are here.
MORRIE I don't see why we have to weigh in. They're going to fight anyway.
NGUNI It is very important the people see everything is correct.
PK I see you, Gideon Mandoma.
MANDOMA I see you, PK.
PK I just want you to know you fight a man. Onoshobishobi Ingelosi is just a name I was given at Barberton Prison. It means nothing.
MANDOMA It is not for you or me to say what it means.
NGUNI Please.
NGUNI It is time.
WHISPERS Onoshobishobi.
CROWD Onoshobishopi Ingelosi. Shobi shobi Ingelosi.
OLD WOMAN Onoshobishobi Ingelosi.
REFEREE You are listening to me please. When I am shouting break, you must break at once. When a knockdown is coming, it is for an eight count. No heads, no elbows. You fight clean or by golly I am giving you penalty points. Good luck, boys.
PK What do you see?
SOLLY A very tough fight.
SOLLY Watch the left hook.
REFEREE Continue.
PK God, he hits like a truck.
SOLLY He's going for the quick knockout. He can't keep it up. Soon the truck runs out of gas.
PK If he catches me again like that I'll run out of gas -- permanently.
SOLLY He's had it. He's got no strength in his punch.
PK Could've fooled me.
SOLLY I'm telling you.
PK Tell him.
MORRIE Look -- he's taking water.
SOLLY See. Where that water goes -- you go. Right to here.
SOLLY You put your punches there, you win. You don't, you lose.
REFEREE Three... four... five...
REFEREE ... seven... eight... nine...
REFEREE How many fingers?
PK Six.
REFEREE Where are you?
PK In a fight behind on points.
REFEREE Okay. Continue.
MORRIE We're in the shit now. Nice knowing you, Solly.
MANDOMA Onoshobishobi Ingelosi.
MARIA The Seniors Dance is two Saturdays from now. I would like it if you could escort me.
PK Maria Marais with a rooinek at the Senior Dance? What will people think?
MARIA They'll think what they think and I'll think what I think.
PK And what is that?
MARIA I think I love you.
PK I would be honored to be your escort.
MARIA I didn't doubt it for a minute. Solly HONKS the HORN.
PK I'll give you a boost.
MARIA Thank you for tonight. You were great.
SOLLY When you and your manager first came to me with that meshuganah idea to be welterweight champion of the world you did not have a big believer here. But I gotta tell you. Now you do. In London lives Benny Rosen, the greatest trainer in the world today. When you go to your Oxford I give you a letter to Rosen. Whatever I can't do for you, he can.
PK Thanks, Mr. G.
SOLLY And I give the address of a very good bookmaker. Teach you also a thing or two. Now, go on back to being fancy-schmancy English gentlemen. I'm proud of both of you.
ST. JOHN (V.O) Gentlemen.
MORRIE You're up early, sir.
ST. JOHN Best time for walking.
PK Best time for running too, sir.
MORRIE Have to put in the roadwork, sir. You know, keep those legs strong.
ST. JOHN Yes. Quite a fresh bruise there.
PK I tripped.
ST. JOHN Maybe you should change your footwear.
ST. JOHN To something a little more appropriate for... roadwork.
BOTH Yes, sir.
MANDOMA Please excuse me for coming like a thief by the window.
PK You speak English?
PK You are a great fighter, Gideon.
MANDOMA Second greatest in this room.
PK But you didn't come to talk about fighting.
MANDOMA When you say to me, Onoshobishobi Ingelosi means nothing, you are right. And you are wrong. The legend gives the people hope for a good tomorrow. But hope alone will not make a good tomorrow for the people. You cannot write our letters, get us clothes, food, work. These things we must do ourselves, so we can be part of this country's good tomorrow. If we are not, the hope will disappear. The people will grow tired. The tired will grow angry and there will be no good tomorrow for anybody -- black or white.
PK What are you asking from me?
MANDOMA To be part of something you must know what everyone else knows. We have our own knowledge. We need yours.
MORRIE We get our knowledge in schools, Gideon. We're not born with it.
MANDOMA Then it must be the same with us.
MORRIE You have schools.
MANDOMA Yes. And teachers who cannot do more than their own ABC's. We have a system made not to teach us.
PK I am only seventeen years old, Gideon. I cannot teach five million people how to speak English and do sums.
MANDOMA You taught the singing to thousands at Barberton Prison. You were only twelve. Mandoma rises.
MANDOMA (CONT'D) You are a great fighter, PK.
PK Second greatest in this room, Gideon.
ST. JOHN You are asking me for a lot, young man.
PK I'm only asking you to put what you've taught us into practice, sir.
ST. JOHN You are asking me to put the reputation of this school in jeopardy.
PK The reputation of this school, sir, is based on its integrity.
ST. JOHN I'm aware of that. I'm also aware of what will happen if this ever gets out. We live in a country where the rules are being rewritten.
PK Then we'd better be careful to keep a firm hand on our pens... ... sir.
ST. JOHN All right. I will allow it on a trial basis. Here are my conditions: you tell no one; you operate at night on Saturdays when the student body is gone; you involve no one besides yourself and Mr. Levy. If you can comply, you can have your school.
MARIA Ready. Set. Go!
PK You okay?
MARIA You're supposed to let me win.
PK Then you'd say I was being condescending.
MARIA You were guilty of that when you gave me a head start.
MARIA Get your formal yet?
PK Uh... no.
MARIA The dance is only a week away.
PK Maria... I can't come to the dance.
MARIA Why not?
PK I have an obligation.
MARIA Can't you change it?
PK It's a permanent obligation. Every Saturday night... It starts tonight.
MARIA You're breaking up with me.
PK No.
MARIA Then what could be so important that it takes all your Saturday nights?
PK I really can't say.
MARIA P.K., I love you. Please don't go away.
PK I'm not going away.
MARIA Yes you are. I can feel it.
PK I'm not. I'm just tutoring. Maria pulls back.
PK I started a school... ... for Gideon Mandoma and some others in the seniors library.
MARIA I'm losing you to a bunch of kaffirs?
PK You're not losing anything.
MARIA No? Are you escorting me to the dance? Are you going to see me on the only free night they give us?
PK Maria, this is important to me.
MARIA And my life's important to me. Damn you.
DOC Ach. You see how beautiful?
PK You ever hear of glycerine, Doc?
DOC Mr. Going-To-Oxford-Smarty-Pants. Of course I know about glycerine. Triglycerine. Biglycerine. Monoglycerine. What do you want to know?
PK Why you don't use it. It's only a little pill under the tongue.
DOC Tongues were not made to put little pills under. When I have to start with that, I become something else.
PK Well, until you become something else, the little pills would make this easier on your heart.
DOC Little pills or no little pills -- we don't find cover, we both turn into something else.
DOC Look for a cave. Always in this kind of rock there is caves. Quick! Quick!
DOC Don't look at me. Go!
PK I've found something.
PK You okay?
PK What are you doing?
DOC Exploring.
PK Why don't you just rest?
DOC Plenty time for resting when I am something else. Look.
DOC When does a cave have wind? This is more than some little cave, my friend.
DOC Here. See? There is a passage.
DOC You know the pyramids are nothing more than man's attempt to recreate the first safe home our species had -- the cave. It is the ultimate safe resting place. The first place man could lay down and have a good night's sleep without worrying about waking up as something's supper.
DOC You hear that? There is something waiting for us.
PK Let's hope it's not hungry.
DOC Better, ja?
PK What's that smell?
PK What's that?
PK Maybe it's stopped raining.
DOC Who can think about rain when you are on the edge of the great unknown cave.
PK You don't know that.
DOC The bats didn't come from a shoebox, Mr. Know-It-All.
DOC Sometimes I think maybe sending you off to that fancy-shmancy school was not such a good idea.
PK It was your idea. Your'e the one who pushed for me to go.
DOC Ja. But who knew they do such a good job of boxing up part of your brain.
PK Which part is that?
DOC The one where is all the questions. The curiosity center. Look.
DOC Did I tell you?
DOC Wunderbar.
DOC How many hundreds of thousands of years to make this masterpiece? Everything outside can change, P.K. This remains the same. We are in the heart of Africa, P.K. The heart of Africa.
DOC (O.S.) You know, if a person stayed here for 100,000 years what would be left? Crystal. Like a crystal mummy. Incredible, ja?
PK Incredible.
PK I wish we had brought the camera. Think there's enough light to shoot?
PK Doc?
PK Doc? Still no answer.
PK This is not funny.
DOC This is incredible! The crystal. You can feel the life go right through you. Here.
DOC Come try it.
PK No. That's all right. Can we go?
DOC We have only just gotten here. What's the matter, P.K.?
PK All day long you've been talking about becoming something else, about dying. You never talked about dying before.
DOC I'm 87 next month. It's natural.
PK Not to a sixteen-year-old it's not. It's painful.
DOC You are right. I am sorry. Sixteen-year-old ears should only hear life.
PK I'll just set you up with some coffee here, so in the morning you won't have to bother making it. He begins to prepare the coffee.
PK I didn't mean to tell you what you can and can't talk about back in the cave today. I guess I just don't like to think of you being...
PK (CONT'D) ... becoming... ... something else. I know it's natural law and it's the way it is with everybody... I just wish it weren't with you. There is no reply.
PK Doc?
DOC P.K.?
PK I'm here, Doc.
DOC The crystal cave will be our secret, ja?
PK Whatever you say.
DOC Promise.
PK I promise.
DOC Ja. Good. I rest a little. The heart of Africa, P.K.
DOC The heart.
MORRIE Christ! If someone would have told me this is where I'd be on a Saturday night, last term of my senior year, I'd call them batty. You know, you're going to owe me for the rest of your life on this one.
PK That all? I figured you'd hold me to it longer.
MORRIE You get the insider friend's rate.
PK Thanks, mate.
MANDOMA I see you, P.K.
PK I see you, Gideon.
MORRIE Let's get inside before the whole bloody world sees us.
MANDOMA Morrie.
MANDOMA You some great friend.
PK Let's go. Stay to the fence.
PK All right, class. I know you don't understand a word I'm saying, but part of learning a language is hearing it spoken. So -- I am P.K.
PK P.K. This... ... is Morrie. Now you all have a chalkboard.
PK Chalk and an eraser. I will say the letter. You will say the letter. I will write the letter. You will write the letter.
PK (CONT'D) Morrie will check the letter. All right? Here we go. 'A'... ... say it. 'A.'
ALL 'A.'
PK Excuse me.
MARIA I thought you might need some help. Or I can just sit and watch.
PK Class. This is Maria. She is now the teacher. We're doing alphabet, from the letter 'A.'
MARIA 'A.'
PK Repeat what she says. Say it again.
MARIA 'A.'
ALL 'A.'
MARIA 'A.' Write 'A.'
MANDOMA You are one brave Boer, Miss Maria.
MARIA Thank you.
MANDOMA And you are one lucky English.
PK Good night, Gideon.
MORRIE Well, I think I'll go... um... lay on my back and count the cracks in the ceiling. 'Night. Nice to see you, Maria.
MARIA Good night, Morrie. Morrie runs off.
PK I am one lucky English. They embrace and kiss.
MARIA P.K. Can I ask you a favor?
PK Anything.
MARIA We don't have to go in or anything. You can hear the music from outside. I'd love to have one dance with you before I graduate.
PK Done.
MARIA I feel so good. Race you to the gate.
PK You need a headstart?
MARIA No.
MORRIE We made it! We made it!
MORRIE Sorry. I couldn't bear the suspense after I read mine. I had to open it.
MORRIE Three months and we're out of here.
PK You're out of here.
MORRIE What the hell are you talking about?
MORRIE 'Dear sir. It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted to matriculate at Trinity College, Oxford,' etc., etc., etc.
PK It says nothing about the scholarship.
MORRIE A technicality.
BOY St. John wants to see you two in his study.
MORRIE Good news travels fast.
PK I'll get showered and changed.
BOY He said to come as you are. Immediately.
PK Wanted to see us, sir?
ST. JOHN Yes. Come in. Close the door.
ST. JOHN This is Brigadier Bretyn from the police department.
ST. JOHN He has come to deliver, in person, an order to close the Saturday school.
PK Why?
BRETYN Because it is illegal.
MORRIE We're only teaching them how to read and do sums.
BRETYN You don't have certification to do that.
PK Prince of Wales is a certified school.
BRETYN Yes. But not certified for that sort of thing.
PK Can he do this, sir?
BRETYN Of course I can do it. Would I be here if I couldn't? Come now meneer headmaster. Let's end this now. I have a full day ahead of me still.
ST. JOHN The Saturday school is to be disbanded until further notice.
BRETYN Thank you, meneer headmaster. Your cooperation in this matter is very appreciated. Good day. Bretyn goes to exit.
PK You know it can't go on like this forever.
BRETYN What can't?
PK What you're doing.
BRETYN I'm just doing my job. And if you'll take some advice, you should just do yours. Bretyn exits.
MORRIE Is that really the end of it, sir?
ST. JOHN For the moment I'm afraid it is.
PK If we let them get away with it on our own grounds, it will never change. It'll just get worse.
ST. JOHN History disputes you.
PK History takes too long.
ST. JOHN Yes it does. But it is never kind to those who try to hurry it.
PK I feel we should resist, sir.
ST. JOHN So do I, P.K. But this is not a subtle government. They mean to have their way and damn the consequences. And I cannot jeopardize this school, no matter how I personally feel. I'm sorry. I heard you were accepted at Oxford.
MORRIE Yes, sir. Received notification today.
ST. JOHN Well, congratulations.
MORRIE Thank you, sir.
ST. JOHN To both of you.
PK Thank you, sir.
ST. JOHN We'll talk before you go.
PK Yes, sir. Will that be all?
ST. JOHN That'll be all.
PK I'd like to see Maria Marais please.
GUARD Sorry. She's not allowed visitors.
PK Well, if I could just talk to her.
GUARD Sorry.
PK Morrie. Morrie.
MORRIE What?
PK I want to show you something.
MORRIE What time is it?
MORRIE Can I see it later?
PK No. Come on.
MORRIE You know, when we get to Oxford -- separate rooms.
PK Will you hurry.
MORRIE Is there some girl out there waiting for me?
PK Yeah. Stunning. Breasts like casabas. Just waiting for you.
MORRIE Bullshit.
PK What do you think?
MORRIE I think you're fooling yourself into thinking the bastards won't come after us in here.
PK This is a church. Didn't you ever hear of the Christian concept of sanctuary?
MORRIE Yes. But I'm not the one who has to respect it.
PK Even the Boer has limits, Morrie.
MORRIE I'm sure he does, but I'd still like to see a big bolt on the inside door.
CARETAKER Mr. Levy?
SOLLY Now move it nice and easy, the both of you. Time.
PK They want us to close the school.
MANDOMA I know.
PK We are still game.
MANDOMA So are we.
SOLLY Would you two find some other time to chat. This is a boxing ring, not a social club.
PK I was in the neighborhood.
MARIA They're sending me away to school in Pretoria. I told my father I wouldn't go. He said if I didn't he'd see they arrest you and ruin your chances. I couldn't let him do that.
PK When do you go?
MARIA Next week. I want to make love to you, P.K. I do.
PK If you'll all be seated we can begin.
PK So far so good.
PK I want to thank you all for having the courage to come tonight. Thank you.
ALL You're welcome.
PK I will be teaching the first part of class tonight and Mr. Levy will teach the second.
PK Gideon?
MANDOMA Miss Marais. Will she not be coming?
PK Not anymore.
PK See.
PK I see. You see. We see.
ALL I see. You see. We see.
PK Boy.
ALL Boy.
PK I see the boy.
ALL I see the boy.
PK Girl. I see the girl.
ALL I see the girl.
MARIA P.K., it's me.
MARIA I wanted to say goodbye to my students... ... and to you.
WOMEN We see the girl.
BRETYN Once warned. Twice punished.
PK You're violating the sanctity of the church.
BRETYN No. You are with your damned race mixing ideas, rooinek.
PK At least let the women go.
BRETYN You want everything to be equal, little Boetie. Why not men and women too?
MORRIE Now!
BRETYN Locks keep people out but they also keep them in.
BRETYN Get up, you bloody commie Jew!
BRETYN Captain.
PK No. Wait. We'll leave.
BRETYN Too late. You never should have come. At the ready.
PK No! Stop!
BRETYN Now.
MARIA PK!
PK Maria!
MEN Daniel. No.
MORRIE You're applying to South African universities?
PK In case the scholarship doesn't come through.
MORRIE Why are you so bloody stubborn? You don't belong in a South African university any more than I belong in the priesthood. Will you take my father's loan?
BOY There a Mr. P.K. here?
MORRIE It's your scholarship.
BOY Sign here. Odd name -- P.K.
MORRIE What's your name?
BOY Waldo.
MORRIE You're not one to talk about names.
MORRIE What's it say?
PK Doc's missing.
VON ZYL Since his pneumonia last year I've had one of the men drop by once a week to see if he needed anything. Of course you know the professor. He never did.
VON ZYL At the beginning of the week he wasn't home so I decided to drop by myself. Waited a whole day here. When he didn't come back I sent search parties. After three days I sent the telegram. Seven days is a long time for him to be gone. Do you have any ideas where he went?
DOC (V.O.) So Mr. Schmartypants. It did not take you so long to figure out what happened. I hope you forgive me for not saying goodbye, but I did not think it would be necessary between us. What could I say you don't already know.
DOC (V.O.) (CONT'D) That I love you with all my heart? That you have given me more in our ten years of friendship than three lifetimes could fill? That the last thoughts I have before becoming something else will be of music, cactus, and you? You know all this.
DOC (V.O.) Last night this music came into my head. It is my music for Africa. My music for you. So go. Be welterweight champion of the world. Be a writer. A great writer. Remember -- the only thing between a dream and a reality is you. Until we meet again, your friend, Doc.
PK Hello? Mr. G? Anyone here?
SOLLY (O.S.) In here.
PK Mr. Goldman, why isn't anybody training? What's going on?
SOLLY A repeat performance of history, my boy. Solly Goldman's being deported. Of course last time I didn't have the luxury of being able to pack.
PK For what reason?
SOLLY Their reason is that I'm here illegal. I didn't enter the country with a passport. Like the Czar was issuing passports to Russian Jews in 1910.
PK This is because of me, isn't it?
SOLLY No, boychick. This is because of them. They are the problem, not you. Don't ever think different. You look tired. Want a glass tea?
PK No, no. I have to get back to school.
SOLLY You got your head screwed on right. Don't let these meshuganahs screw it on wrong. Now go on. You want to find me, look at Benny Rosen's gym in East End, London.
PK Thank you for everything.
SOLLY We're not finished yet. PK smiles and exits.
MARAIS You're a very good writer. The subject matter is a little inflammatory but the style is interesting.
PK What are you doing here?
MARAIS I came to inform you that you will not be receiving aid from the National Scholarship Fund. Neither will you be admitted to any of the South African universities. Here are your applications back.
MARAIS I told you when you came to my house. I am first a member of my tribe and I will defend it any way I know how.
MORRIE (O.S.) They don't want you here any more than they want me.
MORRIE Take the hint. Screw the scholarship. Come on. Let's leave.
PK If I leave or if I stay in South Africa it's because I choose to, not because they choose for me.
MORRIE Where are you going?
PK Save my place at Oxford.
MORRIE P.K., goddammit!
PK Save my place.
PK (V.O.) Dear Morrie. Here is how it works. The copper of the mines in Northern Rhodesia is mined below ground. All day a behemoth of a man, a diamond driller, works a stope which is like the top of a funnel.
PK (V.O.) Setting charges and drilling the rock. The only way for the raw ore he takes from the sides of the stope to get to the haulage below is to pass through the spout of a funnel and out the steel doors at the bottom -- sixty feet down.
PK (V.O.) Halfway down the spout area is a set of six tungsten steel bars called a grizzly which catch all the rocks too large to make it through the funnel mouth to safe haulage.
PK (V.O.) These are taken care of by a grizzly, an explosives expert whose job it is to keep the ore flowing, and since when the ore doesn't flow, neither does the money, working the grizzly is a very crucial and therefore very well-paid position. Three months' work earns a year's stay at Oxford. Yesterday, on receiving my blasting license from the School of Mines, I signed on to work the bars for a year.
THOMAS Are you crazy? To sign on for a year?
PK You said I was the best you ever taught, sir.
THOMAS And you are, boyo. The absolute best.
THOMAS (CONT'D) But even the best doesn't survive a year on the bars. Down in that damn tube the luck runs out sooner than later. You may be a genius at reading the rock but you ain't no fuckin' fortune teller.
PK You worked grizzly a year.
THOMAS And let me show you what I have to show for it to this day.
THOMAS And that's thirteen years after the fact, boyo.
PK Something wrong?
THOMAS Nothing.
BARTENDER One double brandy. One... lemon soda.
THOMAS Come on, then.
THOMAS On being the best damned blaster ever taught by Ian Thomas. Cheers.
THOMAS Another.
THOMAS Sure you don't want one?
PK I don't like the taste.
THOMAS Taste? You don't drink for the taste.
THOMAS Hell's comin'.
THOMAS Drillers. He's got a powder pain from breathin' too much of that damn gelignite. The pain's bad enough. Mixed with a little alcohol it's fuckin' lethal.
THOMAS Come on. We ain't got much time.
THOMAS The two most dangerous things you'll ever see in your life, boyo: a hangup of rock that won't blast free on first shot and a driller with a powder headache drinkin'.
PK (V.O.) Dear Morrie. To answer your question: yes--sports are played here, but only in the loosest sense of the words "sport" and "play". The rules are different for everything, in games as well as in the rest of our lives. The managers, the foremen, the company people. They live apart from the miners. They have families. Proper gardens. Sunday dinners. The miners--the crud, as we are called -- don't. This is a society of men, many of whom have pasts better left behind. Future does not apply. It is a society only in the loosest sense of the word. The laws of survival are simple-- you either do or you don't.
PK You know, Rasputin, I had them right where I wanted them.
PK (V.O.) Friendships are rare—arising out of mutual need rather than any shared interests. But they do exist and even flourish. Except between the drillers and their grizzlies. No one wants to get too close to the man who might be buried at night by what you drilled loose in the day.
PK (V.O.) The Africans who come here looking for work are driven by a different desperation--drought, famine, locusts.
PK (V.O.) They come and risk their lives to send money back home to the families sitting on the barren farms, starving, waiting for death or rain.
PK (V.O.) Superstition runs deep in them, so a good grizzly man attracts a good crew. On the bars, the longer you live the luckier you are. And by association – they are.
ELIJAH Baas. Baas.
PK (V.O.) Hangups are the worst of it. When the top of the funnel gets blocked up and the ore won't flow.
PK (V.O.) The only way to unblock it is to set a charge to blow inward. And the only way to do that is to set the charge in mud, which means climbing up to the mouth of the stope and coming face-to-face with the devil.
PK. holding very still, listening.
PK (V.O.) Sometimes the rock doesn't need the provocation of explosives. Sometimes the earth shifts... a pebble moves... you talk too loud... and in the moment before you are turned into something else by fifty tons of rock you understand why it is called grizzly.
ELIJAH I wait for you, baas.
PK Let's clean her off and call it a night, hey?
PK (V.O.) The Africans think the longer you survive the luckier you are. And the luckier you are the longer you survive. I know there's something inherently wrong with their logic. Still, I'm beginning to see their point. Especially with less than six months to go.
PK Come in.
JOCKO Ay, man. If you'd let him win once in a while we could take a little book on it here.
PK He doesn't care if he wins. He just likes to play.
JOCKO And you?
PK I like to win.
JOCKO Which is why I'm about visiting you. You've come on the board, man. There are odds on your making it or not.
PK How are they?
JOCKO Not in your favor, my boy.
PK Why are you telling me this, Jocko?
JOCKO When you come up on the boards, boyo, it's time to bow out. It's an omen.
PK I bow out you can't make book.
JOCKO PK, it's not a bet I want to collect.
PK Tell me, Jocko, how high will the odds go on something like this?
JOCKO The shorter your time, the higher they go. With you probably ten, twelve, thirteen to one when you're short a month.
PK When the odds hit the top put me in against all bets for two hundred quid.
JOCKO I did not come here to solicit your bet.
PK I know that. I appreciate it. But if you don't take it, someone else will.
JOCKO
All right. You're a bleery fool. And I'll be prayin' every night it's the only bet I ever have to pay off on.
PK And so will I.
JOCKO You should let him win once in a while.
PK When he wins it won't be because I let him.
PK Checkmate.
PK Did you hear a blast whistle?
ELIJAH No, baas.
PK I never heard a drill at night.
PK It's not a ghost. It's just some driller trying to squeeze extra pay. Come on.
ELIJAH Baas.
PK Not the first bloody thing!
ELIJAH Bad sign, baas.
PK Bad drilling's more like it. Come on. Let's get it going.
PK What's the matter with them?
ELIJAH They say juju. Bad magic is in the mine tonight.
PK She's playing with us tonight. Fuse set?
PK Go on.
ELIJAH I stay with you, baas.
PK That's an order.
PK One... two... three.
RASPUTIN PK!
MINER #1 He's dead. No doubt about it.
MINER #2 You give me a fair odds on ten quid?
MINER #1 Four to one.
MINER #2 Make it a sixer and you got me.
MINER #1 You're on.
MINER #2 Anyone else? Six to one he's dead.
MINER #3 He says someone was up there. Blasted it out on PK from the other side?
MINER #4 Who's the driller?
MINER #3 Botha.
MINER #4 No one drills Botha's stope but Botha, and he only works days.
PK
Help. Help.
PK (V.O.) Help.
RASPUTIN PK!
RASPUTIN PK! PK!
JOCKO Well, look at ya now, boyo. Up and at 'em in no time. And rich as a fuckin' lord.
PK What's this?
JOCKO Your ticket to ride. Two hundred quid at fourteen to one.
PK But I didn't make it. I'm a month short.
JOCKO Not according to managment. They cashed you out at twelve months for eleven worked. Last thirty days was bonus. And until someone shows me a calendar reads different, twelve months and a year are one and the same kind of thing. And the bet was for a year. So get yourself mended and get your ass out of here.
PK There's someone I have to see first.
JOCKO What do you want to go pressin' it for? You're rich, lad. You're whole. Why do you want to go pressin' it?
PK Because I want to know.
JOCKO Know what? That the man has blasted so much gelignite he's permanently deranged in the attic? That even the other drillers leave the bar when the man drinks, so crazed does he get. All right. He tried to kill you. But he didn't. You're alive is all that matters. Do us all a favor, boyo. Get out of here. Get on a train and don't come back. We've no liking to be burying someone we're all so fond of.
PK No worries. The luckier you are, the longer you last. The longer you last, the luckier you are.
RASPUTIN Checkmate! Checkmate! He is ecstatic, bubbling with his joy. Laughter springs from him.
JOCKO There's an end to everything, boyo. Even luck.
PK Well I guess this is goodbye, my friend. I'll never forget you.
RASPUTIN PK. Botha. Nyet, nyet. Nyet, Botha.
PK Take care, my friend.
RASPUTIN PK. Botha. Nyet. Nyet. PK.
DRILLER Who you lookin' for?
PK Botha. The driller from stope number five.
DRILLER He's at the bar.
PK Thanks.
DRILLER I wouldn't disturb him. There's a reason he's there and we're here.
BARTENDER #1 PK. You're not going to go in, ja?
PK Is Botha the driller in there?
BARTENDER #2 Ja. Always we give him one hour alone before we open. You don't know this because you work at night, but it is the rule.
FRITZ Ja. In one hour it is pffft.
PK Are you Botha?
BOTHA Ja.
PK I'm PK. I worked your grizzly.
BOTHA Ja.
PK Why'd you try to kill me?
BOTHA Because I missed the first time, rooinek.
PK Jaapie Botha.
BOTHA You remember, rooinek.
PK Botha. It was thirteen years ago.
BOTHA Because of you they expelled me. Because of you my father beat me. Threw me out from the farm. Because of you.
PK Botha. We've made a lot of money working together. Let the past be the past.
BOTHA You ruined the country, all you rooineks. You come and ruin the country.
PK No, Jaapie Botha. It's hate ruining the country.
BOTHA Jaah.
PK Boer hate.
BOTHA Our country.
VOICE #1 (V.O.) He's dead. He's dead.
GEEL PIET First with the head, then with the heart. Little defeat big when little is smart.
PK Want to see the wages of hate?
PK Here. Here is what hate gets you.
PK For my chicken. For Geel Piet. For Doc. For Mandoma. For Maria.
PK For Africa.
PK (V.O.) I knew as I walked out of the mines, out of Africa, that I wasn't fleeing. That one day I would return. Inkosi Inkosikasi was right. I was a man for all Africa. Bound to her by my spirit. Bound by my dreams. And Africa had taught me the lesson I would take out into the world and one day bring back. Great changes can come from the power of many. But only when the many join together and create what is invincible. The Power of One.
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