MONA’S DREAM

 

by

 

Alexei Berteig

 

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beijing, China:

 

13911714474

 

Toronto, Canada:

 

23 Mossgrove St

Markham, Ontario L6E 1E8

905-472-2119

 

 

 

Voices...

 

QAZA’I (O.S.)

(IN FARSI)

Ready?

 

POURRIA (O.S.)

(IN FARSI)

Ready.

 

 

 

MONA

Eventually, God willing, you will come to see that it is because my beliefs are true that I am willing to die for them.

 

There is a pause in the typing...

 

QAZA’I

Tell me about your father.

 

MONA

My father?

 

Mona looks uncomfortable.

Qaza’i picks up a GREEN BOOK

 

QAZA’I

A lot of what you’ve written...is about him.

 

MONA

I thought you wanted to talk about my beliefs.

 

QAZA’I

Your beliefs are his beliefs.

 

MONA

No – I simply believe what is the truth.

QAZA’I

If your father had been Muslim, you would have been Muslim.

 

MONA

No. I would have become a Bahá'í.

 

INT. CITROEN HATCHBACK - DAY

It is CLAM, QUIET, an ISLAND OF PEACE.

We are looking up from the PASSENGER SEAT at YAD’U’LLAH MAHMOODNEZHAD (40) – outside the windows, we see the countryside roll by – his left hand languidly rocks the steering wheel, the other is trapped in two smaller hands...

 

TITLE: 1976 - Seven Years Earlier

 

...belonging to MONA MAHMOODNEZHAD (10) – whose POINT OF VIEW we have been experiencing.

 

Mona sits between her mom and dad in the front seat. She holds Yad’u’llah’s right hand, playing with the rings on his fingers; one of them is a WEDDING BAND, another has a SYMBOL on it...three curved horizontal lines with one vertical line down the middle, and a star on either side of the arrangement.

 

MONA

(tracing the top horizontal)

The kingdom of God...

(tracing the middle horizontal)

The kingdom of the prophets...

(tracing the bottom horizontal)

The world of mankind.

(tracing the vertical)

The spiritual nature that connects us all.

 

Yad smiles.

Mona sees something out the window: she makes little head-bobbing motions.

We see Mona’s POINT OF VIEW (P.O.V.): huge pumpjacks dot the horizon. This is oil country.

 

MONA

Giant mosquitoes!

They come to a border crossing with a sign in Farsi.

 

SUBTITLE: Iran

 

Yad’u’llah and Farkhundeh share a TENSE LOOK. The car in front of them is waved through the checkpoint, and the CUSTOMS OFFICERS slide a fence back across the road.

 

EXT. BORDERCROSSING - DAY

The Citroen has suitcases strapped to the roof.

 

FARKHUNDEH

(to Mona)

Climb into the back and sit up.

 

Mona climbs between the seats and joins her older sister TARANEH in the back.

Yad’u’llah hands their passports to the Customs Agent.

 

CUSTOMS AGENT

How long have you been living in Yemen?

 

YAD

Three years.

 

CUSTOMS AGENT

What was your business?

 

YAD

We were living in Yemen to establish a Bahá'í community. I worked as a laborer.

 

CUSTOMS AGENT

Bahá'í missionaries, huh?

 

Yad’u’llah nods.

Farkhundeh smiles maternally at him.

The customs agent looks over his shoulder at another guard, who’s busy with another car. The customs agent leans in close and WHISPERS CONSPIRATORIALLY:

 

CUSTOMS AGENT (cont'd)

My cousin is a Bahá'í.

 

The customs agent stamps their passports.

Yad’u’llah nods thanks and retrieves the documents.

The Customs Agent waves his hand and the fence slides back.

They roll through the checkpoint.

 

INT. MOVING CAR - NIGHT

Mona is asleep in the back seat.

Lights pass over her face.

The car stops, and we hear the doors open and close.

Arms reach in and scoop Mona out of the back seat.

 

INT. THE MAHMUDNEZHAD HOME, MONA’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

The room is painted BLUE. It is bare except for a bed and a desk. Yad’u’llah lays Mona down on her bed, and half-conscious she lets him pull the covers over her.

Her SLEEP BECOMES RESTLESS.

She GRABS Yad’u’llah’s arm and opens her eyes.

Seeing him, she is relieved.

She sits up and hugs him.

 

YAD

Welcome to your new home, Mona. See? I painted your room blue for you. Your desk is here, all your papers. I made it perfect for you.

 

MONA

Promise you won’t leave me again.

 

YAD

I won't. That was the last time. Now go to sleep. You’re starting school tomorrow.

 

He kisses her forehead.

QAZA’I (O.S.)

He painted your room?

 

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY

 

MONA

We moved around a lot. My dad would always go ahead of the rest of us – find a job, get an apartment.

 

QAZA’I

Do you miss him?

 

MONA

Sometimes.

 

QAZA’I

It is a tragedy that he is gone.

 

MONA

It was his ultimate victory. His last act as a father. I do miss him, but since he...died...I’ve never been lonely.

 

This answer is recorded, like the others.

 

QAZA’I

I have a daughter too. She is a lot like you. Very loving, very devoted. She would do anything for me.

 

Qaza’i puts the green book back on the desk.

 

QAZA’I (cont'd)

Like you, I think. You would even follow your father to hell. That’s where he is now. Because of his pride. Because of his arrogance before God.

 

Mona is silent.

 

QAZA’I

Do you oppose the holy war with Iraq?

 

MONA

I have no opinion about it.

 

QAZA’I

Really. Your writing says otherwise.

 

MONA

Well, I have an opinion, but it’s not the official view of the Baha’is. It’s just my own opinion.

 

QAZA’I

That’s all I’m looking for here, Mona. That’s what we’re trying to get at: what do you really think? What do you think for yourself?

 

MONA

I think the war is horrible. It’s Muslims fighting Muslims. It’s sick.

 

INSERT – mona trying to prevent Goshan from signing up for the front.

 

QAZA’I

You claim that the Bahá'í faith is not political. And yet you interfered with the recruitment of orphans for the war effort.

MONA

They were in misery. You didn’t see it before the revolution.

 

QAZA’I

Yes, well that was the time of the Shah. We got rid of him, though.

 

MONA

It was no different after the revolution, either.

 

QAZA’I

You went on a school trip.

 

MONA

Yes.

 

BORROWED;

 

1^ST VISIT TO ORPHANAGE

 

 

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY

We are back in the interrogation setup.

 

 

QAZA’I

So you felt you had to protect them.

 

MONA

Yes. They would have died in the war.

 

QAZA’I

They would have drunk the cup of martyrdom. They would have been heroes.

 

MONA

They would have died as human mine-detectors. In a war against their own brothers.

 

QAZA’I

The Iraqis are not our brothers.

 

                                    

QAZA’I (cont'd)

You know, Mona, we understand the natural loyalty any child will feel for their parents. That is the only reason we can discuss this. We know that you have inherited this spiritual disease from your parents. Your father, your mother – they, of course, left God’s religion and became heretics of their own accord. You, Mona, have the chance to chose the right path for yourself.

 

MONA

I have chosen for myself.

 

QAZA’I

Yes, I read all about it – when you were fifteen. You wrote in your journal about it. Your mom and dad threw you a ‘declaration party.’ All your older Baha’i friends came over and you indoctrinated yourself.

 

MONA

It was my decision.

 

QAZA’I

(snide)

Of course it was. Do you know I offered him a chance to recant? Of course, I could not spare his life, because he had chosen heresy for himself. But I mean I offered him a chance to recant in return for your life. And do you know what he said?

 

MONA

I hope he said that he knew you were lying.

 

QAZA’I

No...oh, no, Mona. That’s not what he said. He said – Pourria?

 

Pourria references a pre-prepared transcript.

 

POURRIA

He said: “I will not recant my faith, even if you kill my parents, my wife, even Mona.”

 

QAZA’I

Does this sound like a faith of goodness? Or does it sound like an evil faith, that it could make a man forsake his daughter who loves him so much?

 

MONA

You’re not asking the right questions.

 

QAZA’I

I’m not?

 

MONA

These questions won’t uncover the truth. Why don’t you ask me about Baha’u’llah? You should ask me to prove that He really was one of God’s great teachers.

 

QAZA’I

Do you hate me, Mona?

 

MONA

No.

 

QAZA’I

You hate me for what I have done to your family.

 

MONA

No...but things will be very hard for you.

 

Qaza’i trades a look with Pourria.

 

MONA (cont'd)

Why isn’t he recording it?

 

QAZA’I

He only records answers to the questions I have asked. It is a precaution to safeguard the truth.

 

MONA

He should record everything.

 

QAZA’I

No – I’m sure you can understand that things would get out of control very quickly.

(a beat)

Why will things be hard for me?

 

Qaza’i waves off Pourria: don’t record this.

 

MONA

Because I’m going to prove to you that I believe in the same God as you. But when you accept that, you will also have to accept that you have killed innocent men and women, in the name of truth. This will be very hard for you. You cannot see the truth because you do not want to -

 

QAZA’I

Maybe I should be the one wearing the blindforld!

 

Qaza’i and Pourria have a hearty laugh at that one.

 

QAZA’I

Tell me about the visions.

 

INT. HOUSE OF THE BAB - DAY

INSERT FIRST VISION.

 

QAZA’I

Do your visions always come true?

 

MONA

Yes. Always.

 

QAZA’I

So, you think you can see the future?

 

MONA

It’s not that simple. I dream things – and I don’t know what they mean until it happens.

 

QAZA’I

Have you ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecy, Mona?

 

MONA

Yes – that’s where you make something happen that you think is going to happen.

 

QAZA’I

That’s right. It sounds like these ‘visions’ are more like dreams, and then you make them happen.

 

MONA

No. I didn’t want for any of this to happen. I couldn’t have known it would happen like this.

 

INSERT – Mona hit by car.

Parents unwrap the bandages.

Mona especially attached to her father – she’s had a dream that he would be martyred.

 

MONA

I didn’t think any of it could really happen, until the persecution started.

 

INSERT – RACING TO SARVISTAN.

INSERT – REFUGEES AT BAHÁ'Í CENTRE

INSERT – KAMAL COMES WITH RED SWEATER.

INSERT – MONA WITH VISION

 

MONA

That was right before the revolution. That day was the first time I thought the dreams might come true.

 

QAZA’I

Like the dream about your father?

 

Mona nods.

 

QAZA’I

You believe that your dreams were sent to you by God?

 

MONA

Not necessarily, I mean, when a soul is receptive to the influence of its Creator, you can be guided in all kinds of ways...

 

QAZA’I (cont'd)

Yes, well, I have another explanation. Your father was very committed to the Bahá'í cause. He moved your family to Yemen for several years to carry out Bahá'í teaching work. He went there a few months ahead of the rest of the family...you were, what, five years old?

 

MONA

Yes, something like that.

 

QAZA’I

It’s very hard for a little girl to be seperated from her daddy like that. And then there was a civil war in Yemen – there were killings. Perhaps your dream was simply a natural, psychological release of your fears at that time – the fear of being seperated from your father. It took on this particular form of religious persecution simply because your father had filled your head with all sorts of stories about the heroic early days of your faith. There was lots of killing, wasn’t there.

 

MONA

Yes, just like now. Baha’is have always been persecuted by men like you.

 

Qaza’i smiles coldly.

 

INSERT – MONA RETURNING ON BUS FROM ORPHANAGE – PASSES BY KAMAL AND QAZA'Í IN FRONT OF STUDENT DEMONSTRATION.

INSERT – MOTLEGH AND TALIQANI ‘ENCOURAGE’ QAZA'Í TO MAKE A STATEMENT.

INSERT – QAZA'Í PREACHES TO MASSES. REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS MOVE IN. KAMAL ARRESTED. QAZA'Í ARRESTED.

 

INSERT – MONA AND YAD VISIT VAHDAT IN PRISON.

INSERT – VAHDAT’S FUNERAL.

 

 

 

 

 

CBC FOOTAGE – STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY

 

One million students fill the open campus.

 

In 1863, a prophet named Baha’u’llah rose up in the desolate heart of the once proud country of Persia, and proclaimed that the age of universal peace had dawned. He denounced the corruption of the two traditional rulers of Persia – the Shahs and the Ayatollahs. He proclaimed that God had seized power from the kings and ecclesiastes of the world and delivered it into the hands of the people.

 

The followers of Baha’u’llah, called Baha’is, presently reside in 170 countries of the world, and represent over ten thousand distinct ethnicities, making it one of the most culturally diverse and goegraphically widespread religions in the world. In the land of it’s birth, however, the Bahá'í faith is outlawed, and its members are systematically persecuted.

 

In 1967, blah blah blah. Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini publicly denounced his actions, and was exiled. He settled in Neauphle de Lise in France, where he continued to criticize the regime in his sermons, which were distributed on audio cassette on the black market.