Moirai_the short film

Moirai_short film

Logline

This is a story about a young girl who is raped by her father and rescued by a stranger. The stranger murders her father and the girl being a witness to the murder is in a dilemma whether to confess to the police or keep quiet and have a father figure in her life.

The Treatment

Moirai_Short Film

ACT ONE

In a quiet neighborhood. John is repairing a rooftop. In the house next door through the window John can see a policeman defiling a young girl. John throws a hammer which shatters through the window and knocks the policeman off the young girl. John in a hurry to climb down topples the ladder and he slips dropping from the two storey family home roof and onto garbage bags.

The policeman, Wafula, rushes to the window and fires at John. Who is still recovering from vertigo. The loud gunshot gets a neighbor to call the police. John manages to get into the house. Wafula runs to the backdoor and leaves the young girl on the floor covered in blood. The only exit is the front entrance and John is now inside the house.

John rushes to the room where the young girl is and carries her to the bathroom. Wafula stealthily takes a snapshot using his phone of John carrying the girl and placing her in the bathtub. The flash sounds alerts John who charges at Wafula, ramming him to the floor. A police car stops at the front of the house. Two gunshots are heard from the house and Kiprop, Wafula's partner tactfully rushes into the house.

He finds John holding a gun to Wafula's head. Wafula shows Kiprop the pictures and accuses John of being the rapist. Wafula is the step father to the young girl. John drops the gun and puts his hands up. As Kiprop reaches for the handcuffs, John pounces on him, pushing him to the floor, then runs out the shattered window and falls again. He however limps away from the scene and disappears.

Kiprop puts out a fugitive call matching John's description and also calls an ambulance. The young girl is taken in but Wafula doesn't consent to a rape test sighting the pictures as conclusive evidence. No tests are carried out and only the wounds are tended to. Kiprop drives the young girl and her step-father back to her home after filing a police report. John collects Wanjiku, the young girl's mother, from a pub drunk beyond her wits and takes her to her house. John sticks around and when Kiprop arrives with the other two, John hides in the young girl's room under her bed. Wanjiku who's come around but still on edge, goes out and accuses her husband, Wafula, of abusing his step daughter. Kiprop thinks it's the alcohol talking so he takes off.

That night Wafula sneaks into the young girl's room. He threatens her never to speak of it and tries to force himself on her again. John who's still under her bed pounces on Wafula and pours blows on him. The young girl is now in a screaming frenzy. John hits Wafula's head to a pulp with a lamp stand. A neighbor calls the police.

Wanjiku drawn by the screams of her daughter pants into the room to find Wafula's head a bloody mess, the young girl curled up traumatized and the paper that covered the shattered window torn. Wanjiku whisks the young girl out of the house screaming and they run into Kiprop who's accompanied by other policemen. The informant neighbor saw John exiting through the window. The policemen carry the corpse and mark the house as a crime scene. Kiprop takes the young girl and Wanjiku to the station. Wanjiku begs Kiprop to hide them from her father-in-law, Kiprop's boss, Wanyonyi, the police boss. Kiprop stalls Wanyonyi.

ACT TWO

Kiprop orders the young girl to be examined for biological evidence. The residues of semen found go through DNA profiling against Wafula's DNA, to rule out Wanjiku's earlier remarks. It's a 1000% match. The deceased Wafula is the perpetrator. Kiprop reports to Wanyonyi, Wafula's father. Wafula's mother was raped, killed and the killer is still anonymously at large.

Wanyonyi commands Kiprop to bring John in. Before Kiprop leaves the station, he checks up on the young girl and Wanjiku. John and Wanjiku were school classmates in primary school. He hands her a copy of the rape test results and shows her pictures of John. Wanjiku swears that's the guy who brought her home from the pub and he's the young girl's biological father. John is Wanjiku's former lover. Kiprop asks her his home address. Kiprop takes off leaving Wanjiku puzzled and the young girl still in a trance.

Kiprop heads over to John's house and arrests him. John doesn't resist after realizing the young girl is his blood. As they head to the station Kiprop hands John the rape test results. Kiprop feels the boss will clean house and John won't see tomorrow, he should forget about having a day in court. They arrive at the station to find everyone gone, Wanyonyi is the only one around.

Wanyonyi commands Kiprop to go home for the day, he offers to take John to the cells after booking him. Kiprop asks to take something from his desk. Wanyonyi takes John to the cells. Kiprop diverts and enters the camera surveillance room to find everything switched off. He turns everything on and links the recording to stream live to YouTube.

Wanyonyi comes to check on Kiprop to find him at his desk. Wanyonyi, a pair of wine glasses in hand and an expensive liquor bottle congratulates Kiprop for finding his son's killer and proposes a toast. Kiprop gulps the half glass. Wanyonyi doesn't drink, he offers Kiprop the liquor to take home. Kiprop leaves. Wanyonyi makes a call and heads to John's cell and takes a seat at the desk near the cell. He informs John he's going to pay for killing his only son, the only family he had.

Three muscular men come into the station. They beat John to a lifeline. John is barely conscious with a couple of broken bones. They bring Wanjiku and the young girl from the witness wing. The men make John watch as Wanyonyi puts a bullet in Wanjiku's head. The young girl refuses to watch and runs off. Wanyonyi fires at her but misses. The men are onto her as Wanyonyi is getting rid of Wanjiku's corpse. The whole thing is streaming live on Youtube.

The police chief, Wanyonyi's boss is woken up by a call from one of the junior police woman, about the streaming video. The chief calls in all policemen to duty. They storm the police station and arrest Wanyonyi and the three men. John is taken to the hospital and a court date is set. The girl is taken up by a shrink.

ACT THREE

We are now in a courtroom and the live YouTube footage is playing on a TV screen. The young girl is on the witness stand. Wanyonyi is in cuffs, John is on a wheelchair clad in hospital attire, hooked to a water drip. John appears weak covered in bandages, a nurse stands beside him. A lawyer says that Kiprop was found dead in his bed at home, apparently from alcohol poisoning. That the footage is conclusive evidence that Wanyonyi is guilty but is the killing of Wafula justified, says the lawyer to the jury. The lawyer sits back in his chair.

The judge asks the court to take a break as the jury deliberates. Only the jury and the judge leave the courtroom. The packed courtroom audience remain seated. After some few minutes the court is back in session. The jury rules that Wanyonyi is guilty and John's actions were justified and the state has to handsomely compensate the young girl. She was a victim of the same government branch that serves to protect.

Wanyonyi is sentenced to hang, the lawyer reveals that apart from being corrupt he has evaded justice for too long as a notorious perpetrator. The judge closes the case. The young girl runs to John and gives him a big hug. John tries to protest due to his injuries but she ignores him. There is a standing ovation from the court audience.

Some years later we are back to the same court. The young girl, now grown up is on the stand holding up a bible. John, the lawyer and the judge have aged a little. The courtroom is packed full. The young girl is being sworn in to the position of the United Nations Secretary General. After being sworn in, she delivers the shortest speech ever in history for the occasion. By swearing to commit her life to reforming the police all over the world.