HELLIG KRIG pitch presentation Movies on War Festival ELVERUM

Hellig krig

– feature film screenplay idea and pitch presenta4on

author: Piotr Matecki

Elverum, 12.11.2015

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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, flash of films, 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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”Hvordan kunne et norsk ektepar fra Verdal og Levanger ende opp med å slu7e seg 8l Den islamske staten (IS) i Syria?”

-­‐ ACenposten, 27. November 2014

”Den norske sikkerhetstjenesten mistenker at en ung, norsk kvinne har terrorplaner, og har sendt ut en melding gjennom Interpol-­‐systemet, får ACenposten opplyst.”

-­‐ AQenposten, 19. February 2015

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” – Han var «som alle andre», men han var ikke direkte glad i å gå på skolen.”

-­‐ NRK, 27. November 2014

” – Jeg tror hun har ha7 behov for å høre 8l et sted.”

-­‐ NRK, 27. November 2014

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” I innlegget skriver hun om at syndene hennes ble visket ut, og at hun var som født på ny. Hun følte at hun hadde få7 en ny mulighet 8l å få livet si7 på re7 kjøl, og 8l å gjøre noe rik8g.”

-­‐ NRK, 27. November 2014

”De [venner] sier at kompisen er hissig, men snill. Han bærer 8ng for gamle damer, stø7er kameratene og hjelper 8l når det trengs. De sier at han all8d er der for dem. En gang gir han 3000 kroner 8l en venn som trenger det.”

-­‐ NRK, 8. October 2015

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”Barndomsvennen tror tenåringen konverterte for å gi livet mer mening.”

-­‐ NRK, 8. October 2015

”Han sier at han skal hjelpe de som lider under forferdelige overgrep fra diktatoren i landet, Bashar al-­‐Assad. Det han har se7 på TV og interne7 gjør så sterkt inntrykk. Dessuten hører han ikke hjemme i det norske samfunnet, sier han 8l venner.”

-­‐ 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 influence 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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TOM, 45, father. Protagonist. 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. LeQ 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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ARNE, 17, son. 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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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 influence of radical, charisma4c mullah. Sayid is the one who first 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 gedng into fights 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 gedng 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 adtude 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 aQer 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 leQ the country to join the “holy warriors”.

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CONFLICT

Two representants of different 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.

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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 bajlefield? Or maybe here, very close?

Maybe there is completely different war we need to win than the one we have in minds aQer watching media?

Maybe ul4mate weapon is not F16, but insights, understanding, dialog, compassion, including adtude?

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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 ajracts 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 poroolio: 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 – ajest in ajachment).

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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 lejer in ajachment.

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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 film project with cinema distribu4on on the Europe markets in coopera4on with leading distribu4on companies.

World film 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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