Original screenplay in English. Adapted from my play of the same name.
Short Synopsis
While the Americans try to obtain the release of their Embassy personnel held hostage in Teheran, the Shah of Iran is the guest of General Torrijos of Panama, guarded by Colonel Noriega. Three dictators (past, present and future) on a small island in the Pacific.
Long Synopsis
The Shah of Iran flees the Islamic Revolution to discover that none of his friends or allies want him in their country. He falls ill and goes to New York for an operation. The personnel of the American Embassy in Teheran is taken hostage. As a favour to President Carter, General Torrijos of Panama accepts the Shah as his guest in a holiday home in the Pacific while he tries to resolve the crisis single-handedly. He puts Colonel Noriega in charge of his security. There is a clash of styles and an underpinning tension in the apparently casual conversations. Both Torrijos and the Shah are trying to come to terms with their own mortality. Noriega is trying to make as much money as possible. Torrijos is a charismatic leader with genuine social-democrat convictions but also an alcoholic and a womaniser. He pursues the Shah’s wife and attempts to talk man-to-man with the Shah. The Shah is a reserved man, attaching great importance to protocol, and uses his illness as a polite way of refusing to talk. Torrijos is secretly negotiating with Iran. When the Iranians announce that the Shah is under arrest pending extradition, his entourage fears the worst, particularly when he disappears overnight after a trip in the company of Noriega – but this turns out to be a false alarm. Even the Shah’s medical treatment becomes a political issue and tempers flare. Another operation is necessary but the Shah’s people are worried that the new Iranian government might persuade the Panamanian doctors to let the Shah die on the operating table. Finally the Shah decides to leave for Egypt but not before Torrijos has had his say.
Extract:
The screen is COMPLETELY WHITE.
It begins to shimmer and sparkle, then gradually comes into focus on an elaborate multi-tiered cake covered in white icing sugar in the form of a palace out of the Thousand and One Nights, with gold and silver decorations that sparkle in the light. A silver pastry knife comes into view to save one of the decorations on the cake, a little figure of a prince, in danger of falling over. The knife catches the light and the screen goes white again. There is no sound until we hear a man’s voice on the soundtrack, with a Latin American accent.
Chuchu (V.O.)
There were all sorts of stories, you know, but what it was, the real problem – same as now, same as always – the root of the problem was the black stuff, the black gold.
INTERVIEW – EXT. GARDEN DAY
CHUCHU, a middle-aged Panamanian professor, rather scruffy with longish grey hair, is being interviewed by a film crew. He is filmed in close shot, seated at a table, in a tropical garden.
(The main narrative takes place in 1979-80 and is interspersed with documentary-style interviews with some of the characters, providing insight and commentary, shot in 1990.)
TITLE : José de Jesus “Chuchu” Martinez, poet, mathematician, philosopher, university professor, sergeant in the Panamanian National Guard
CHUCHU (cont’d)
Oil. That’s what lifted him up and that’s what threw him back down.
He pauses, and plays with a knife on the table in front of him.
- INt. PALACE DAY
The pastry knife is still having problems with the little figure on the cake. There is no sound and these images have an unreal quality in strong contrast to the documentary feel of the interviews.
We now see that what we are looking at is in fact the reflection of the cake in a gilded mirror in a luxurious hallway. Dazzling sunshine is filtering in through an open door. There is a state reception outside. We see only the reflection in the mirror, a mere suggestion of untold riches.
The PASTRY CHEF worries at the figure with his knife and accidentally knocks over another. A MAITRE D appears behind him signalling him to get a move on.
The pastry chef gives up on the figure and resigns himself to picking up the cake: he is nervous, it wobbles. He turns slowly towards the door. We catch reflected glimpses of army uniforms, servants in livery, extravagant dresses moving about outside as the cake edges towards the door.
The silence gives way to the sound of another man’s voice.
MOSS(V.O.)
Well, yes, he was kinda the figurehead for all those guys, the OPEC guys, the oil producing… he had them pretty much under…
INTERVIEW – INT. OFFICE DAY
AMBLER MOSS, a middle-aged Virginian diplomat, plump and easy-going, talks to the camera, in close shot.
TITLE: Ambler Moss, former US Ambassador to Panama
MOSS (cont’d)
With the benefit of hindsight I think we can say… they were holding the West hostage, is what they were doing. We weren’t used to that back then. Pushing those prices up and up, there was just no end to it, it was a real… it was a crisis, no other word for it.
INT. PALACE DAY
In the mirror the cake wobbles as it edges towards the door. It begins to crumble. The images are slowed down as the pastry chef panics and turns back.
CHUCHU (V.O.)
He was their ally. He was buying all their planes and guns. Everybody all smiles. Nobody said anything. But I guess somewhere along the line someone in Washington decided he was getting too big for his boots.
INT. PALACE DAY
In SLOW MOTION and in an eerie silence the pastry chef brings the cake back to the table in front of the mirror, where it fills the frame again: the whole thing collapses and subsides into a mess of crumbs and sugar. The silence gives way to a rising CLAMOUR of angry voices punctuated by gunshots and screaming.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE:
Ayatollah Khomeini, crowds in Teheran, the Islamic revolution. The clamour is in turn drowned out by the roar of an AEROPLANE engine taking off.
CROSS FADE to :
EXT. SKY DAY
An aeroplane disappears into a mass of thick white clouds. The screen is almost completely white again. An extract from “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” by W.B. Yeats appears line by line against the white background:
“… Nor law nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds;
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.”
OPENING CREDITS
INT.PLANE DAY
In the cockpit, at the controls of the plane, the SHAH OF IRAN, sixtyish, tense, looks stone-faced before him as he brings the plane up out of the clouds. He gets up and hands the controls to the pilot who has been standing behind him. He looks down a moment for a last glimpse of Iran as it disappears beneath the clouds. He goes back into the passenger area and sits next to his wife, QUEEN FARAH DIBA, some twenty years younger, elegant and dignified. She takes his hand in hers and squeezes it.
TITLE: January 16, 1979. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, and his wife Farah Diba leave Teheran for the last time.
ARMAO (V.O.)
It wasn’t about oil. It wasn’t about power. It was a question of honour. The American government had given him to understand that he could settle in the United States. On leaving Iran, he stopped first in Egypt, then in Morocco. By the time King Hassan had made it clear that his presence there was beginning to be an embarrassment, President Carter’s administration had changed its tune.
INSERT: we follow a line on a MAP indicating the Shah’s journey.
INTERVIEW – INT. OFFICE DAY
ROBERT ARMAO, a snappily dressed New York public relations man, fortyish, is being interviewed. He has notes on the desk in front of him and is somewhat less spontaneous than Chuchu or Moss.
TITLE: Robert Armao, former aide to Nelson Rockefeller, director of public relations for the Shah of Iran from 1979 to 1980.
ARMAO
They told him he couldn’t stay in Morocco and he couldn’t go to the United States. Carter didn’t want him to return to Egypt. In fact the only two countries in the world he could go to were South Africa and Paraguay.
INSERT: back to the MAP of the Shah’s travels – a dotted line shows the possible options, then a full line the path taken.
ARMAO (V.O.)
The Shah thought he could go to Switzerland, where he had a house in St. Moritz, or to Austria, where he had friends in high places. But no. In the end he left for the Bahamas. Stayed there ten weeks, cost him 1.2 million dollars.
INT. PLANE DAY
The Shah, in a passenger seat, once more looks out of a plane window at the clouds. But now his face is thinner. His skin is a greyish colour. He seems tired.
Armao (V.O.)
I mean, just a few weeks before, nobody had a bad word to say about this man. Not in public anyway. Unofficial contact was made with Margaret Thatcher in England. She held her hand on her heart and said if she was elected the Shah would be welcome in England. She was elected. A man from the Foreign Office came to the Bahamas under a false name to tell the Shah that he would not be welcome after all.
INSERT: Back to THE MAP again – a line from the Bahamas to Mexico and from there to New York.
Armao (V.O.)
The president of Mexico defied his ministers and extended his welcome. But the Shah fell seriously ill. The doctors decided he had to be taken to New York.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE
Anti-Shah demonstrators outside the New York Hospital.
Armao (V.O.)
He was smuggled into the New York Hospital, which was soon surrounded by crowds shouting “Death to the Shah!”
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM NIGHT
The Shah, thin and deathly pale, is in a hospital bed. He is watching TV. He looks on in disbelief at a report on the demonstrations against his coming to the United States and the taking of the American Embassy in Teheran (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE).
Armao (V.O.)
During his stay in the hospital Iranian students took the American Embassy in Teheran by storm and held the whole of the personnel hostage.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE
The Embassy crisis. Carter looking tense and worried. Khomeini speaking to a crowd. Kissinger in an interview.
MOSS (V.O.)
This was exactly what Jimmy Carter had been trying to avoid. That whole Embassy hostage thing, it was his worst fears becoming reality, just a disaster for him.
INTERVIEW – INT. OFFICE DAY
Moss is speaking to the camera.
MOSS
The Republicans were always going to make the most of it. He had to come up with some sort of solution or it was going to cost him his presidency. (MORE…)
MOSS (Cont’d)
Carter was no Tricky Dicky. The American people had elected him because, after Watergate and Vietnam and all the what-have-you, they wanted a man they could trust. He was just trying to do the honourable thing.
INSERT: The MAP again – a line is drawn from New York to Texas.
ARMAO (V.O.)
Shortly after surgery they dispatch the Shah to a military base in Lackland, Texas.
INT. ROOM NIGHT
The Shah and Farah Diba are ushered into a room by an American army officer. The Shah scans the room: a white room lit by a neon, with a bed and a table – there are no windows. The Shah’s eyes return to those of his wife: she is shocked and afraid. She turns to the officer and screams at him.
ARMAO(V.O., cont’d)
There they put him in a mental asylum. They say it’ll be easier to guard. The Shah’s room doesn’t even have any windows. The Queen cracks: she thinks Carter is going to put them on a plane to Teheran. They are transferred to officers’ accommodation and stay cooped up there until they receive an invitation from General Torrijos, the dictator of Panama.
EXT. STREET PANAMA 1979 DAY
Moss, some ten years younger, hurries along a street in the city and goes into a fairly modest-looking building. It is hot and sticky.
INT. STAIRWAY DAY
Moss hurries up the stairs. An attractive young woman opens a door. She recognizes him.
MOSS
I need to speak to the General. It’s important.
The girl looks at him blankly.
MOSS
Is he here?
The girl shakes her head.
MOSS
Well, do you know where he is?
The girl just shrugs. Moss sighs and goes down the stairs.
EXT. STREET DAY
Moss goes down another street, this time with several bars and cabarets. He looks in each of the bars but doesn’t find what he is looking for. In the last bar a man speaking on the telephone signals him to come in and speak on the phone.
EXT. CALLE CINQUENTE DAY
One of the biggest streets in Panama. Moss, sweating now and a little out of breath, heads to the entrance of a residential building.
INT. RORY GONZALEZ’S HOUSE DAY
Moss comes into a room where a secretary is busy sorting mail. He pauses to catch his breath and before he can speak the secretary nods her head and looks towards an inner door. Moss looks. The door opens and TORRIJOS is standing there. Fiftyish, good looking and in pretty good physical shape except that right now he is clearly the worse for drink. He stands in the doorway, swaying slightly and stares at Moss with glazed eyes. His speech is slurred.
TORRIJOS
Ambler. Been looking for me. What’s your problem?
Moss takes one look at Torrijos and then looks at the secretary, who confirms his misgivings with a nod.
MOSS
The Shah. He’s coming.
TORRIJOS
Oh.
MOSS
Tomorrow.
Moss shoots a dramatic look at Torrijos but is disappointed by his lack of reaction.
TORRIJOS
Better tell Aristides.
MOSS
Why?
TORRIJOS
He’s the president. Gotta do it by the book.
MOSS
What book? The National Guard runs this country. About all the president gets to do is park his car in a reserved space at the Hotel Panama. He’s not going to do anything.
TORRIJOS
Get me Aristides on the phone.
Torrijos turns back and disappears into the next room. Moss looks at the secretary as she dials a number then hands him the phone.
Moss (to phone)
Hello, this is… Oh. … Yes, this is Ambler Moss from the US Embassy, could you put me through to the President, please? … No, your president. President Royo… Moss, the US Ambassador… M.O.S.S.
He waits.
MOSS (to himself)
Jesus.
A voice comes over the phone.
President ROYO (on phone)
Ambler, what’s up?
MOSS
The Shah of Iran, that’s what’s up.
PRESIDENT ROYO
What, the one all the fuss is about?
MOSS
Yup, that one. The General’s invited him here, he’s arriving tomorrow, we’ve got to sort out accommodation, security, the works… and pronto.
PRESIDENT ROYO
Well, sounds pretty crazy to me but if it’s what Torrijos wants, what can I say? What do you want me to do?
MOSS
Well, the General…
He looks up but Torrijos has disappeared and so has the secretary.
MOSS
OK, wait a minute, Aristides, I’ll ring you back.
He puts the phone down and goes into the next room where he meets the secretary coming back towards him.
MOSS
Where’s the General?
SECRETARY
Well, he fell asleep, so we put him to bed.
Moss sighs.
MOSS
OK. Fine. That’s fine. What the hell. I’ll just ring the State Department, tell ‘em everything’s ready, send him on down.
INSERT: A new line is traced out on the MAP, from Texas to the island of Contadora off the Pacific coast of Panama.