Feature screenplay · Reading sample
Don't Wake Them
9-page opening sample. Full screenplay available privately on request.
Sample text is displayed for reading only. No public PDF download is provided.
1
1
FADE IN:
BLACK.
Three children breathing. Three different
rhythms.
Beyond a wall, a chair moves. Not dragged.
Lifted. Set down carefully.
SUPER: "1981."
INT. BUNGALOW 9 - CHILDREN'S ROOM - NIGHT (1981)
4:3. Degraded stock. The frame begins after
something has already started.
A small room. Three narrow beds.
JONAS, nine, nearest the door. IDA, seven, in
the middle. HENRIK, five, against the far wall.
Their eyes are OPEN.
They stare through the half-open bedroom door. A
lamp swings in the room beyond. Its light
crosses their faces, disappears, returns.
We never see what the light touches.
A dull IMPACT.
A WOMAN tries to speak.
MOTHER (O.S.)
The children are here.
THE MAN (O.S.)
I know.
The chair again. Lifted. Set down.
A body hits the floor.
Henrik reaches across the dark and catches Jonas
by the sleeve.2
2
Beyond the door, a DARK FIGURE moves through the
swinging light. A shoulder. A sleeve. The side
of one hand. Never the face.
The figure stops. Every sound in the other room
stops with him.
He turns toward the children.
HENRIK
(almost no air)
It's him.
Ida's hand closes over his mouth. Henrik does
not resist.
Six open eyes. One small hand keeping one small
mouth shut.
The figure remains still. Watching them.
Then he turns away. The sound resumes.
The children watch.
The frame cuts before they move.
TITLE: DON'T WAKE THEM
INT. BUNGALOW 9 - CHILDREN'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS (1981)
The violence has ended. Movement now. Something
heavy adjusted. A chair set upright.
Then the tap runs.
Somebody is washing.
Ida's hand leaves Henrik's mouth and lies flat
on her own chest, holding herself down.
IDA
(a whisper)
Jonas.
Jonas does not answer.3
3
IDA
Alma's not in her bed.
The water runs.
The frame ends early.
SUPER: "SIX DAYS EARLIER."
EXT. REST STATION - BEHIND BUNGALOW 9 - DAY (1981)
4:3. The only warm light in the 1981 material. Afternoon
washing moves in a soft wind. For several minutes nothing
in the world is wrong.
ALMA, twelve, sits on an overturned crate repairing the
hem of a dress. IDA, seven, stands in front of her wearing
it anyway. A length of red thread runs between Alma's
fingers.
IDA
You said I could wear it.
ALMA
I said when it stopped looking stolen.
IDA
It doesn't look stolen.
ALMA
You are wearing my shoes.
Ida looks down. Alma almost smiles.
JONAS, nine, rolls a bicycle wheel past them with no
bicycle attached. HENRIK, five, follows him carrying a
pump twice the size he needs.
HENRIK
Alma, Jonas says the tyre is dead.
ALMA
Jonas says that about everything he
can't fix.4
4
JONAS
It has a hole.
ALMA
Then it has more personality than you.
Jonas throws a clothes peg. Alma catches it without
looking.
Beyond the washing line, POLISHED SHOES pass on the gravel
path. Ida brightens before she can stop herself.
Alma sees the brightness. Her hands stop for half a
second. Then continue sewing.
ALMA
If he asks you to keep something from
Mother, you tell me first.
IDA
He never asks secrets.
ALMA
Then it will be easy.
She snaps the red thread with her teeth and ties the loose
end around Ida's wrist.
ALMA
There. Now it looks stolen properly.
Ida smiles.
EXT. BUNGALOW 9 - BACK STEP - LATE AFTERNOON (1981)
4:3. An ordinary day. No score. Ida sorts pine cones by
size on the step, changing the rules whenever one pile
becomes too large.
A shadow reaches across them. Polished shoes stop beside
her.
THE MAN
Your mother is expecting me tonight.
Ida keeps sorting.5
5
THE MAN
Leave this door on the latch. Mrs
Sarnow will stop me if I use the path.
IDA
Should I tell her?
THE MAN
She knows.
He walks away. The shoes disappear around the bungalow.
Ida remains on the step.
She closes the back door completely. Tests the latch. It
catches.
She opens it again. A hand's width. Too wide.
Closes it a little. Opens it. Closes it. Until the gap
looks like an adult could enter without making the latch
click.
From inside:
ALMA
Ida. Wash your hands.
Ida looks at the open door.
IDA
Coming.
She goes inside. The door stays exactly where she left it.
EXT. REST STATION - SERVICE YARD - LATER (1981)
Alma rides an adult bicycle much too large for her in slow
circles between laundry poles. Jonas runs beside her with
one hand under the seat. Henrik counts every lap
incorrectly.
ALMA
Let go.
JONAS
You'll fall.6
6
ALMA
That is what letting go means.
Jonas lets go. Alma makes three glorious metres alone,
then tips sideways into grass.
For one beat there is silence. Then Alma laughs. A real
twelve-year-old laugh, furious at itself for starting.
Ida runs to her. Alma pushes her away, still laughing.
ALMA
Don't tell Mother.
IDA
Is it a secret?
ALMA
No. It is evidence.
Jonas laughs now too. Henrik pumps the dead tyre as if
that caused everything.
INT. BUNGALOW 9 - KITCHEN - EVENING (1981)
The children eat bread and soup. The MOTHER moves between
stove and sink. Alma reads a folded programme under the
table: SATURDAY PICTURE -- MARKET HALL.
A knock. Only once.
The Mother does not answer fast enough. The door opens
anyway.
Polished shoes on the mat. Wet wool. THE MAN enters the
children's world from the knees down and the shoulders up.
The frame never gives us his whole face.
Henrik slides off his chair and runs to him with one shoe
untied.
HENRIK
Double knot.
The Man kneels. His hands are patient. He reties the shoe
correctly, then the other one though it was not loose.7
7
THE MAN
You'll ask me to undo them in ten
minutes.
HENRIK
I won't.
THE MAN
You always say that.
Henrik grins. The Man knows which cupboard contains the
mugs. He takes one without asking.
The Mother watches him do it.
MOTHER
The box is by the door.
THE MAN
I saw it.
MOTHER
Take it.
THE MAN
Tomorrow.
MOTHER
Tonight.
A silence the children do not know how to enter.
Alma folds the programme once and puts it in her cardigan
pocket.
ALMA
Mara's mother said I can go to the
picture Saturday.
The Mother does not look away from the Man.
MOTHER
We'll talk tomorrow.
ALMA
You said yes yesterday.8
8
The Man drinks from the Mother's mug. Alma looks at him.
He looks back.
THE MAN
Tomorrow is useful. People can put
anything in it.
The Mother takes the mug from his hand before he has
finished. Sets it in the sink.
EXT. BUNGALOW 9 - STEPS - MORNING (1981)
Henrik sits trying to make two sticks into a bridge. The
Man crouches beside him and places the Mother's keys in
his palm.
THE MAN
She left these again.
HENRIK
Where?
THE MAN
Keep them safe until she remembers.
HENRIK
Where?
The Man considers the question as if Henrik has asked
something difficult.
THE MAN
You are good at safe things.
He stands and goes.
Henrik looks at the keys. The decision is his.
INT. BUNGALOW 9 - CHILDREN'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS (1981)
Henrik opens his blanket box. He tries beneath a pillow
first. Too visible.
He unfolds one blanket. Places the keys in the middle.
Folds one side over them. Then another.9
9
He pats the blanket flat.
Ida appears in the doorway.
IDA
What did he give you?
Henrik puts both hands on the folded blanket.
HENRIK
Nothing.
The word surprises him. Ida leaves. Henrik sits beside the
box, guarding the safest place he could think of.
EXT. REST STATION - GRAVEL PATH - DUSK (1981)
Ida runs after Alma with a pine cone held in both hands.
IDA
Alma. Look.
Alma keeps walking.
ALMA
I'm not your friend today, Ida. Go and
be somebody else's problem.
Ida stops on the path.
Alma gets ten steps away. Stops. Comes back.
She takes the pine cone and examines it properly.
ALMA
It's the best one. I'm keeping it.
She slips it into her cardigan pocket and walks on. Ida
follows.
The light is going. Somewhere behind them, a man closes a
door softly.
EXT. REST STATION - PATH LAMP - DUSK (1981)
Jonas stands on tiptoe beneath the pull chain. The lamp
throws a weak yellow circle onto the path. His blue woolEnd of sample.Full screenplay available on request.