TRANSLATOR

TRANSLATOR

2-minute short

A film by Madison Morris

PREMISE: 

In an Indian rural hospital, a young American tourist MARCUS recovers from a train crash. When he has a brief and mystical encounter with a beautiful paralyzed WOMAN, Marcus has to decide whether there is a possibility for two different worlds to stay connected.

SYNOPSIS:

A twenty something blond MAN with severe injuries to his head, ears and a left part of his body writes in his notebook, taking breaks to look at a train crash broadcasted on an old TV set in a packed Indian hospital room. Tags on his messenger bag and the open notebook indicate that his name is MARCUS; he’s from USA, likes weed and has started travelling through Asia after suffering some personal setbacks back home. Despite lots of notes and checklists, his adventure appears not to have a goal or finish line, just like an ant like INSECT that wanders across the pages.   Marcus’ physical appearance stands in contrast to other victims’; the hearing loss further separates him from the crowd.

His writing is continuously interrupted by a fellow patient who keeps leaning on his injured shoulder. When he finally attempts to intervene he finds the personal space intruder to be a beautiful seemingly uninjured WOMAN who yet appears to have been paralyzed in the accident.

Marcus notices that the woman has a wet rag under her chin, a primitive hybrid of a bib and a neck brace. Hesitant and initially disgusted with her state and the surroundings in general, Marcus begins to gently clean saliva and tears off the woman’s face. He overcomes the revulsion, but lets a small cry when the evidently omnipresent insect runs off the note book’s page through his hand and onto the woman’s stained sari. A LITTLE BOY on his other side laughs at Marcus ‘squeamishness. 

Challenged by the little boy’s reaction Marcus picks up the bug and triumphantly puts it back on the open notebook. . The insect is now stubbornly parked on the page. After gentle propping, it slowly starts wandering around in a manner eerily reminiscent of an Ouija board dart. 

Marcus’ eyes follow its path in search of recognizable pattern. He looks at the woman as if looking for a confirmation. The bug continues its slow march to rest on a word ‘yes’.

The little boy looks with astonishment as Marcus alternates between talking at the woman and looking down at his notebook.

Suddenly, an arriving group of agitated people breaks into the crowd of reconvalescents and throws Marcus off his makeshift post.  As he struggles to recover his balance, the woman is wheeled away by intruders who seem to be her relatives.

Eventually Marcus composes himself enough to notice that the insect got squashed between words ‘thank’ and ‘you’ in a sentence that Marcus had previously written.

Marcus, sans bandages but with unattractive bruises, awaits boarding on an Indian airport. He prepares his boarding pass when he notices the now familiar type of insect. He places the ticket flat and allows the insect to start its ‘interpretative dance’ as he looks intensively trying to decipher a message. But the insect stops by the name of the city Marcus is about to leave and simply rolls away only to land at the man’s feet and march away.

Marcus stands up with an intense look on his face, looks around trying to locate the exit. He grabs his bag ready to leave the departure lounge.